New Beginnings
by ARoseForRose
Summary: My first story. Gabrielle has a well hidden secret and she's managed to keep it from Xena. But you can hide behind your finger for ever... I'm afraid I'm not gr8 with summaries... But don't let that stop you from reading the story! :P ***CH19 re-uploaded!***
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Heeey! :P this is my first story everyone! I actually wrote this thing when Xena was on and I was like 6 years old. It's probably the first story I have ever written! I found it on one of those magnetic floppy discs (I _think_ that's what they are called) and decided to translate it since it was originally written in Greek (I didn't know a word in English back then :P ). And I also made some changes with the story. So... As you know, reviews are always appreciated. And so is constructive criticism! But please try not to be too harsh on me... Remember, I was 6 when I wrote this! Anyways, on with the story! :D Oh! And by the way, I obviously -and may I add unfortunately- own nothing but the story! All the characters belong to their rightful owners (exept the ones I created :P )! Okay. Now on with the story (for real)!**

**1.**

"Xena! Look at this one! It looks just like a horse!" After a long and tiring day, Xena and Gabrielle were lying on the grass doing nothing but looking at the sky. They would rarely do something like that and it was at times like this one that Gabrielle was truly happy and relaxed. You could tell just by looking at the shine in her eyes and listening the enthusiastic tone of her voice that there was nowhere else she would want to be. Xena on the other hand, she had tones of better things to do. She could sharpen her sword like she'd always do when sitting near the fire at night. She could even go fishing or just keep walking until the next village. For Xena, it was times like this one that she hated herself for placing bets and then losing them.

_~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~__**Flashback (earlier that morning) **~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~__.~__.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~_

"_And I'll get anything I want?"_

"_Anything you want." Xena and Gabrielle had arrived in a small village and they were standing outside a local store. Xena had just challenged Gabrielle to guess how many horses were staying in the stable that was next to the little shop. Xena always enjoyed placing bets with Gabrielle as the young bard almost never won._

"_What if I lose?"_

"_Well... If you lose, we won't camp anywhere during the night. We'll keep going until we reach Thessaly."_

"_I can't walk all night long!" protested Gabrielle._

"_We'll get you a horse. Or, when you get tired, you'll ride with me. I know how much you like sitting in front of me and sleep resting your head on my chest." said Xena making the young bard blush._

"_Okay..." she said after a moment and asked: "Counting Argo or not?"_

"_I don't know... Counting."_

"_Okay... Then I'm gonna go with... Eight." answered Gabrielle after thinking for a few moments._

"_Eight? Don't you think that eight is a pretty small number?"_

"_I'm not changing my answer, Xena."_

"_Alright. Let's go inside and count them then." she replied and entered the stable. As Gabrielle entered behind Xena, the warrior turned to her with a suspicious look on her face._

"_How did you know that?" she asked._

"_I got it right?" said Gabrielle surprised._

"_Yes..." said Xena slowly. "How did you know?" she asked narrowing her eyes._

"_I don't know... I guess I was lucky." Gabrielle put on her most innocent expression._

"_Lucky? In a stable that can easily accommodate twenty horses, you said eight, and you were lucky?"_

"_What? I don't see your point..." Gabrielle struggled to maintain her innocent look._

"_You cheated."_

"_I did not!"_

"_Riiight..." said Xena and continued: "Wanna go grab something to eat? I'm starving!"_

"_Um... Okay." said Gabrielle confused that Xena let the fact that she had lost the bet drop so fast. "I'm pretty hungry too. Let's just hope that the food here is better than the food in the last village. You know, I couldn't sleep for three days! My stomach felt like I had swallowed a handful of rocks!" she added._

"_Yeah, I noticed. You were up and behind the bushes every five minutes."_

"_Oh. I was kinda hoping this wouldn't come up... Like _ever_!"_

"_Ugh... Come on Gabrielle!" said Xena who was already approaching a tavern across the street._

___~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~__**End Of Flashback**.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~__.~__.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~_

"That's nice Gabrielle." said Xena without caring at all what the cloud Gabrielle had just saw looked like.

"And that one! That one looks like a girl! No wait- it looks like... Well, I don't know exactly what it looks like- no, no. I know. It's a cyclops! Doesn't it seem like a cyclops to you?"

"Yes, Gabrielle. It looks_ just_ like a cyclops." said Xena as she rolled to her side, turning her back at Gabrielle.

"Xena. You didn't even turn your head!..."

"Gabrielle, honestly, why are we doing this?" asked the Warrior with a sigh.

"Because, Xena. I won the bet. You said I'd get whatever I wanted. So... This is what I wanted."

"Really? _This_? Not... I don't know, learning everything I know?" It was obvious that Xena would much rather want to teach Gabrielle the pinch instead of lying on the grass without doing anything even remotely constructive.

"Yes. This. Do you realize that we never sit without doing anything? I remember when we were kids, Lila and I, we would always lie like this and try to find weird-shaped clouds. I miss moments like this one..." soliloquized Gabrielle and put her hands behind her head. "What about you? What did you use to do when you were young? I'm guessing that cloud-gazing wasn't one of your hobbies..." she asked without taking her eyes away from the sky. "Xena? Xena are you listening to me?" she asked when Xena didn't reply to her question. "Ugh... Dozed off again..." sighed Gabrielle as she turned her head and realized that Xena had fallen asleep. She covered her friend with a blanket -it would often get pretty chilly at nights- then she covered herself and closed her eyes. An other day had finally come to its end.

-_**Later at night**_-

Gabrielle opened slowly her eyes. For the past five minutes she had the impression someone was hiding behind the trees next to her. Now -after getting hit with a rock- she was sure. She looked around without getting up. She grabbed her staff, which she'd always leave next to her and stood on her feet as quietly as possible. She walked towards the woods. She had her staff ready, just in case she needed to use it. The further she walked in the forest, the quieter it got. There was nothing there. Gabrielle was ready to leave when she heard that sound again. Only this time, it was a lot closer. She turned around abruptly and raised her staff. There was a blue-ish flash of light and then Ares appeared right in front of her. Her staff was pointing directly at his throat.

"Ares..." she said without lowering her staff.

"Hey there, blondie."

"What do you want?" asked Gabrielle.

"First of all" said Ares, "lower your stick." He pushed it down with not much difficulty as Gabrielle showed no resistance.

"It's a staff. Not a stick." corrected him Gabrielle but her voice was barely audible. "And second of all?" All Gabrielle wanted was Ares to leave and she made it pretty clear with the tone of her voice.

"And second of all, I have something to give you." said Ares not caring what tone Gabrielle was talking in.

"Give me? What can you possibly have that's mine? And -whatever this thing is- when and why did you get it? And most importantly, _why_ would you want to give it back to me?" Gabrielle had obviously gotten interested in what the God of War had to say.

"Hey. Go easy on the questions there." Ares was never the one to answer a lot of questions. He liked to be short and to the point. That's exactly why instead of replying to the young bard, he put something out of his pocket and handed it to her. It was a silver four-leaf clover necklace. Gabrielle knew exactly both when and why Ares had it. She had given it to him. Fifteen years ago. Gabrielle held the necklace in her palm. She looked at it and then she raised her head and looked at Ares. She didn't know what to say.

"Wh- Why?" she asked confused.

"What why?"

"Why are you giving this back to me? And why now? After more than fifteen years..."

"Actually it's not after more than fifteen years. It's exactly after fifteen years. And I just thought you should have it."

"It's was this day fifteen years ago? What? Are you counting?" Ares opened his mouth to answer but Gabrielle didn't let him. "Okay. Never mind that. So what's the catch?" she asked.

"What catch? There is no catch."

"Oh come on, Ares. I know you. You don't just walk around giving stuff! There must be something you want in return..."

"Look, there is no catch. I just wanted you to have it back." Ares seemed to be telling the truth so Gabrielle got a bit more relaxed.

"You never told me why, though..." said the bard who still thought that the whole situation was just too weird.

"No reason. Oh! Look at the time! I have to go." he said and he disappeared in his blue-ish flash just like he appeared a few minutes ago.

"What-" said Gabrielle but Ares was already gone. "-time?..." she finished her sentence talking to herself.

Gabrielle walked back to the camp and she sat on a big piece of wood right next to the fire. She picked up a small stick and poked the fire with it for a while. Once the flames were strong enough, she let go of the stick and looked the necklace she was holding. She let it hang from her fingers and she watched it as it was 'dancing' over the fire. More than ten minutes had passed and Gabrielle was still sitting there. In the same position, holding the necklace over the flames. For a moment, the thought of throwing it in crossed her mind. But she could never do something like that. That little silver four-leaf clover simply meant too much to her to throw it away. The young bard sighed. She put on the necklace and decided to go back to her bedroll. Judging by the shadows, the sun would be up soon and she didn't want Xena to wake up and find her awake. After all, there was an other long day ahead of her and the last thing she wanted was to be tired. So she got up, walked quietly back to her bedroll and lied down next to Xena, giving her a last look before closing her eyes one more time.

**A/N: So here you go! 1st chapter :D What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Should I post the rest? Please please pleeease review and tell me your opinion! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again! :D So, my initial thought was to upload a chapter per week -cause that seemed fair enough at least in my head- but turns out, I just couldn't wait to post the next one! :P As I said before, I'm translating this from Greek (not with an online translator or anything like that. Those things are just stupid. I'm just doing it myself and maybe with the ocasional help of a dictionary) and that means that I already have some of the chapters ready. Up to chapter 9. Everything beyond that point is still unprocessed and I'm still working on getting all the stuff together... Plus, I just discovred yesterday that the story is not actually finished! And so _that_ means that I'll have to come up with ideas that will be both interesting and go along nicely with the rest of it as I have absolutely _no_ idea where I wanted to do with this story!... Oh well...  
**

**A/N 2: Thanks for the reviews and the alerts! Oh and I had like 100 hits in 3 days which made me really happy! So thanks for takingg the time to read it :D  
~MadameCissy: You are my first reviewer! *yay*And to answer your question, all I can say is: All in it's time :P You'll find out soon enough  
~blackrider11: I'm glad you are interested in reading the rest of it! I'm afraid that I didn't really understand the last part of your review.. (I'm probably too tired or something) but what do you mean "I may hunt down the greek version of this (if I can find it) and translate it was a really bad online translator." I guess what confused me is the "was"... :P  
~LAeyeball: So glad you like the beginning! I hope the rest of the story keeps you intrigued enough to continue reading! :D**

**2.**

"Wake up sleepy head." Gabrielle stretched and rubbed her eyes.

"Is it morning already?" she asked with a sigh without opening them.

"Yep." answered Xena causing Gabrielle to pout a bit.

"What's that smell?" asked the bard. "It smells like fish..." she continued and opened her eyes only to see Xena standing right over her holding a really big fish way too close to the bard's face.

"I brought breakfast." said the Warrior Princess.

"By the Gods, Xena!" said Gabrielle and hit Xena's hand, trowing the fish away. "I told you not to do that! It's the third time this week! And it's just gross!..."

"It's still funny though." said Xena with a smirk. "And by the way, there is no more food left. You just threw away our last fish." she added while reaching out to help Gabrielle get up.

"You know what? I think I can go a day without eating fish... I mean I did eat fish yesterday at the tavern and the day before that, and the day before that, and the-"

"Okay! I get it! You don't want fish today! Fine. Well then _you_ go and find something to eat!"

"What's wrong with you?" asked Gabrielle surprised by the tone in Xena's voice. It was like she was mad at her or something.

"Nothing." replied Xena and added: "I'm gonna go for a ride. Argo could use some stretching up. I'll meet you back here in a while, okay?"

"Oh. Okay..." Gabrielle responded and wondered off thinking that there was definitely something wrong with her friend.

Xena sat there for a while. She did want to go for a ride but not at that moment. She wanted some alone time to think. Think what Gabrielle could have possibly been doing last night when she got up and went in the woods. And why she didn't say anything. That was unlike her. Usually, the young bard would tell everything to her. But not this time. Xena was confused and mad at the same time. She really wanted to know what was going on. The warrior decided that she had some time until Gabrielle's return so she walked over to the bard's bedroll, determined to find something that indicated what had happened during the night.

* * *

"How can she say there's nothing wrong? I can read her like a scroll! She thinks she can hide her emotions from me. Yeah, right!..." Gabrielle was talking to herself while looking around for something edible. _'Maybe she heard me last night.'_ The thought that had just crossed Gabrielle's mind made her froze. What was she going to tell Xena if that was true? Gabrielle knew that her friend had super sensitive hearing and could wake up to literally anything but for the last couple of years, Gabrielle was the only one who could move around without waking the Warrior Princess up. But what if last night was different? What if Xena had for some reason waken up and heard Gabrielle talking with Ares? The bard couldn't bear the thought of Xena knowing.

* * *

The young bard returned a few minutes later carrying some fruit. It was the best thing she could find in the woods, since she really wasn't in the mood for meat in the morning. She found Xena sitting a few feet away from the spot where the fire was last night. Her back turned to her.

"What are you doing here?" asked Gabrielle and added: "I thought you were going for a ride with Argo." Xena turned her head. She had a strange look on her face that caused the bard to take a barely noticeable step back.

"What's this?" she asked showing Gabrielle a small silver four-leaf clover pendant. Gabrielle's hand mechanically rose and touched her stern. _'Oh great.'_ she thought and walked closer to Xena.

"It's a necklace." she answered avoiding eye contact, knowing that this only made her look guilty.

"Where did you find it?"

"I didn't find it. It's mine. It's always been mine!..." Gabrielle's tone was defensive.

"How come you never wear it?"

"I don't wanna loose it."

"Come on, Gabrielle. If it's so important to you that you never wear it so that you don't loose it, I think I would have seen it before. I've _never_ seen it before. Why don't you tell me the truth? You know you can trust me..."

"Xena... Can we just drop it?" said the bard and tried to take the pendant away from Xena.

It was then that the strangest thing happened. As soon as Gabrielle touched the necklace, she felt a power sweeping her off her feet. She felt like she was spinning round and round. She tried to keep her eyes open. She could see images passing next to her. They were her memories. Gabrielle felt like she had been spinning for ages before everything finally stopped moving. It took her some time to stop feeling dizzy and sick. When she managed that, she blinked a few times. She was no longer in the woods. She still knew where she was though. She had been taken fifteen years into the past. But Gabrielle wasn't the only one there. Xena was there too.

They were standing in the middle of a street. They both knew exactly where they were. Amphipolis. The other people didn't seem to acknowledge their presence but they could see and hear everyone and everything. There were two girls standing a few feet away from them. They were at least thirteen years old. One was tall, with long black hair and ice blue eyes. The other one was petite and had long dark brown hair and green eyes. They seemed to be upset about something.

"No. We are not supposed to go there!" said the shorter girl.

"Oh, come on Ophelia! You know you want to."

"No! Last time, I ended up punished for a month!"

"That was two years ago! We are older now. I'm sure your parents will be okay with it..."

"Are yours?"

"What?"

"Are your parents okay with you going to the caves by yourself?"

"Sure..."

"They don't know, do they?"

"Not really..."

"Oh great! That's just great! So you expect me to go there _and_ lie to my parents about it? I don't think so."

"Coward."

"I prefer the terms 'logical' and 'realist', thank you very much."

"Whatever. I'm going."

As the taller girl left, Gabrielle looked a Xena. Her green eyes met the warrior's blue. The bard knew exactly what was going through Xena's mind. However, she didn't speak. The warrior was still looking at the petite girl standing in the middle of the street with her hands crossed over her chest. The only thing she could think was _'It can't be...' _Suddenly, Xena and Gabrielle felt that same power again. A few seconds later, they were again standing where they were before Gabrielle touched the necklace. As soon as the bard realized what had happened, she pulled abruptly the pendant from Xena's hand and held it tight. _'So that's the catch...' _the bard thought while waiting for Xena to talk. She knew she'd have a lot to say.

The moments that passed seemed like ages to the bard who was expecting the worst to happen. When Xena finally opened her mouth to talk, Gabrielle took a small step back and swallowed. She felt a chill running down her spine.

"What was that?" asked relatively calmly the warrior but got no response. Gabrielle didn't know what to say. "So?" she asked again.

"Look, Xena..." started Gabrielle, "it's a long, a very long story..."

"I got time." The warrior didn't look upset or mad and that confused the bard. She expected a far worse reaction. Gabrielle sighed and started:

"Okay... Now, I know you won't believe me but I promise that what I'm about to tell you is a hundred percent true."

"I'm listening."

Gabrielle cleared her throat in an attempt to make herself feel more comfortable. She then started telling Xena a story. A story about a young girl named Ophelia who lived in Amphipolis with her family. The bard told everything to the warrior, from the day Ophelia met her first -and best- friend, to the day her father ordered a group of soldiers to kill her cause she was thought to be a threat to her family. While Gabrielle was narrating the story, Xena wasn't looking at her. She had an empty look on her face the whole time. Like she was visualizing what was being told.

"The necklace you found," said Gabrielle, "it was my mother's. It's the only thing I have left from her."

"Your mother who's in Amphipolis?"

"Yes..."

"Let me get this straight. _You_ are Ophelia? My _friend_, Ophelia. The one who I didn't even remember that existed?"

"Yes, yes and... It was part of the deal. The not remembering part, I mean..."

"How can you be her? Ophelia and I, we had the exact same age and... Well, you are eight years younger than I am... And- what deal?"

"What we saw earlier... It happened the day I left home... When you went to the caves, I went home to tell my mother that I was going to the caves with you. I hated the idea of you going alone. When I got there, my mother was really upset and she told me that I had to leave. She didn't tell me why or how. She just said that it was a matter of life or death. I had never seen her so worried. She gave me a little bag with food, water and some clothes, barely enough to make it through the next couple of days, and she told me to go into the woods and hide. She also gave me her pendant. She believed it was lucky and she wanted to do everything she could to make sure I was going to be okay... It wasn't until later that night that I found out why I had to leave. I was hiding in the forest just like I was told to do when I saw a weird blue-ish flash of light and then a man appearing right in front of me. It was the first time I saw Ares. He told me that my mother begged him to save me. I didn't believe him at first but I figured that if my mother had to beg a god so that I could be saved, it had to be very serious. He told me that I had to die in order to save my brother. My father always thought that my brother would become a great warrior. The best of all times. But Alexander got really sick and we all knew that he wasn't going to make it. In the end, everyone had come to terms with it. Even him. Everyone except my father. He loved my brother so much, he would do anything to save his life. And I mean _anything_. He called Hades and offered him a deal. He said that if he let Alexander live, he could have me instead. I was pretty much nothing to my father anyway. Raised to be a housewife and nothing more. According to him, I had nothing great to offer. It was my brother who should live. That's why I had to die to save him..."

"Like a sacrifice?" Xena, who was clearly absorbed to the story the bard was telling, interrupted.

"I guess... But it was more of a 'kill the girl or the great warrior dies' kinda thing... So, anyway, Ares told me that he would save me cause I was his chosen or something. I asked him what he wanted in return and he said that he wanted the necklace I was wearing. It was extremely hard for me to give it to him... I didn't want to loose the one thing I had that reminded me of home... I told him that he could take anything else he wanted but he wouldn't change his mind... I did give it though. After he threatened to leave me there all by my self... After that, he mumbled something and then told me that he had just erased the memory of everyone who knew me or had ever met me. That meant that even if I spoke to someone I knew, he would have no idea who I was. But Ares' plan wasn't over yet... He told me that in order to make sure I wasn't going to be recognized by anyone, I had to look different. That's when he changed my hair color from dark brown to reddish blond..."

"Still doesn't explain the age difference..." Xena cut in again.

"I'm getting there. You always ask ahead of my stories... Anyway, when he was done and ready to leave, I asked him if he could do me an other favor. I asked him to take me back to when I was five..."

"You asked him to do this? Why?"

"Because I was thirteen... Too young to be living completely by myself and too old to be taken in by someone. I figured that most people would take care of a five year old..."

"Good point..."

"Thank you. The thing was, he didn't want to do it and he was pretty persistent, too... I don't know why though. But I did manage to persuade him. After he turned me into a five-year old, he transferred me to a nearby village and told me to stay there."

"Potidaea..."

"Yes... Then, Ares left and I had to find somewhere to stay. I had sneaked into a barn when a man named Herodotus found me and took me in. He and his wife, Hecuba, raised me as if I was their real daughter... Lila was just a bit over three years old at the time, so she doesn't remember anything about that."

"What about the name?" Xena hadn't been so interested in listening to anything Gabrielle had to say for at least a couple of moons.

"Well, I had decided that I shouldn't tell anyone my real name -just in case, you know- so when Herodotus asked me, I told him the first name that came to mind. And come to think of it, I've always liked the name 'Gabrielle' so I just saw that as an opportunity..."

As Gabrielle finished her story, she looked at Xena who was once again having a blank expression. She was probably trying to digest everything she had just heard coming out of the bard's mouth. As the warrior was still not talking, Gabrielle was looking down at her lap, nervous to see what would follow. She expected Xena to snap at her, to yell why she never told her that before. But -much to her surprise- the warrior stood up and simply said: "I'm going to ride Argo." and left without looking back.

"I'll never get you..." soliloquized Gabrielle and put her necklace back on.

**A/N: So that's it for now :D Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading and -as always- review! Reviews keep me motivated! :D :D (Oh and btw, the name "Ophelia" is one of my fevorites and I've always wanted to use it somewhere!)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey! It's me again :P this is a really small chapter.. But it is kinda important for the story. So... please do read and review it for me :D i noticed that my last chapter got 0 reviews... 0! that made me a bit sad. After all, it's the reviews that keep us bards going! So please be kind enough to leave me a review and make my day :) :) Please and thank you!**

**3.**

As Xena took off with Argo, Gabrielle's words were still ringing in her ears. The warrior was confused. She didn't know whether to be mad at the bard or feel sorry for her. _'Was Gabrielle's story even true? But then again. Why would she lie about something like that? And if she was Ares' chosen all this time, why didn't she say anything? And why do they act like they just met each other? Ugh... So many questions...' _Xena was so indulged in her thoughts, it wasn't until Argo came to a halt that she realized that there was a dead end in front of her.

"Oh great..." At that moment Xena also realized that she had no idea where she was. She had let Argo go wherever she wanted and she was not paying attention to the route they had taken. As the warrior turned back to leave, a man jumped in front of her holding a sword. He looked awfully familiar but Xena couldn't put a name to the face.

"Well. Looky here." he said with a grin. "If it ain't Xena. The 'Warrior Princess'" he continued, using an ironic tone on the words 'Warrior Princess'.

"What do you want?" asked Xena, still trying to remember who the man was.

"Don't you remember me, princess? You were the one who stopped me from stealing that horse about four days ago. Do you have any idea how long it took me to finally track you down?"

"Um... Four days?..." answered Xena with a tone of sarcasm.

"Oh, you think you are smart, don't you?"

"Kinda..." said Xena with a slight grin. She was finding the whole situation pretty amusing.

"Well. Let's see if I can erase that smile off your face." said the man and ran towards the warrior. Xena jumped off Argo doing a back flip while shouting her war cry. It took a few moments for the man to realize what had just happened. Those moments were more than enough for Xena -who had landed behind him- to put her sword out. When the man turned around, the warrior disarmed him with a simple -but strong- kick to his wrist. His sword fell on the ground a few feet away from him.

"You have two choices." said Xena who was pointing her sword directly to the man's throat. "You can either tell me what you want from me and I'll _probably_ let you live, or you can choose not to tell me and I kill you here and now." The man didn't respond. "Okay then." said the warrior and kicked him in the back of his knees, forcing him on his back.

"Okay! Stop! I'll tell you!" yelled the man as Xena raised her sword over her head and was ready to strike. She slowly lowered her weapon. That move made the man feel a bit more relaxed.

"I'm listening." said the warrior.

"You said you won't kill me if I tell you."

"I said I _probably_ won't kill you. It depends on what it is you'll tell me." replied Xena.

"Look lady," said the man and sat up. Xena raised an eyebrow at his words and raised her sword a bit to warn him not to do any sudden moves. "all I know is that some guy named Androkles or something has put a price on your head. I wasn't gonna sit and do nothing when I already knew where you were. And I need the money so..."

"So you thought it would be a good idea to come up against me. By yourself. You should know better. And may I ask _why_ this Androkles has put a price on my head? Or were you so overwhelmed about the money you forgot to ask?"

"Oh I asked alright. He just never told me. Only thing I know is that it has to do with the girl."

"The girl? What girl?"

"The one who's always with you. I forget the name..."

"Gabrielle!..."

"No... That's not how he called her..."

"Ophelia?"

"Yep! That's it!"

"What about her?"

"Look. I don't know. And honestly? I don't even care. I came here to capture you and you little friend and get you to Androkles." said the man and added: "Where is she anyway?" as he realized that Gabrielle was nowhere to be seen. Xena didn't answer. With a quick movement of her hands she immobilized the man from his neck and down.

"What is this?" he yelled in panic. "What have you done to me?"

"Pressure points. And you are lucky that's _all_ I did to you." answered Xena as she got the man off the ground and practically threw him on Argo.

"What are you doing?"

"You didn't think that I would just let you walk away, did you? You are coming with me."

"Coming where?"

"To find Androkles." said Xena and mounted Argo who immediately sprang into motion.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Don't forget to take a minute of your time and review! :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Chapter 4 :D hope u all enjoy this! Again, this one's pretty small as well but that's just the way it is and I can't do anything about it.. :P Anyways, thanks everyone who has reviewd and alerted my story :) makes me happy!**

**~Fluval66: I'm very happy u like my story so far :) i hope the rest of it keeps your interest up! :)  
~ivo1617: Thank u so much for reviewing all 3 of my chapters! :D an to answer your question, i have written lots of other stories (in general) and i _think_ there's one other Xena story in one of my magnetic floppy disks. Unfortunately I don't know for sure. I will definitely check though :) but if there is one, it will take time to process and translate it and everything... I'll do it after this one is finished. Anyways, thanks again for reviewing :)**

**4.**

Gabrielle sat on the same piece of wood she was sitting the night before. She had already packed her bedroll and all her things and waited for Xena. She figured that she was away for a pretty long time so she should have been on her way back. Not knowing what to do, the bard took a scroll and her quill out of her bag and started writing. The story on that scroll was going to be different from the others. Gabrielle started writing about the past. Her life as Ophelia when she was still living in Amphipolis. She wrote about the time she first met Xena back when she was an innocent -well, as innocent as Xena could have been- girl who liked spiders. Gabrielle always hated spiders. As far as she could remember, that was one of the very few things the two girls never agreed on. The other was the fact that Xena always liked to do things without telling anybody. Not that Gabrielle didn't like adventure or the thrill of discovering a new place where the two of them could hang out without anyone knowing where they were. She just thought that at least one member of their family should be informed on their whereabouts just in case something happened. Thinking of it now, Gabrielle realized that what she wanted was completely and utterly reasonable as she and Xena would always get themselves into trouble.

The bard let a sigh come out of her mouth. Up until now, she hadn't realized just how much she had missed those days. Back when she was living in Amphipolis with Xena. Sitting there, Gabrielle brought in her mind the first time she saw Xena after she left her real home. Twelve years had passed since Gabrielle had been living with Herodotus, Hecuba and their daughter Lila. Twelve years, and not a single day without the young bard thinking of her best friend. She had of course heard the stories. The stories of a young woman named Xena and how she wanted to concur every known nation. Gabrielle knew it was the same Xena she knew but she never came to terms with that fact. In her mind, Xena was a beautiful tomboy who would try anything in order to achieve what she wanted and who would always be there when her friends needed her. That's the Xena she knew and loved and nothing could change that.

An other sigh came out of the blond's mouth. Only this time it was slower, deeper and hid much more emotion in it. She had no idea how much time had passed since Xena went away but she knew it had to be long as the sun was already high up on the sky. She folded her scroll and put it back in her bag. She stood up slowly and walked around for a while. _'Xena should have already been here by now...' _she thought. _'She knows we have to be in Thessaly before the night falls... Ugh... Where are you, Xena?' _A little voice pulled Gabrielle from her thoughts.

"Excuse me." said the voice and the young bard turned abruptly to see who it was. She was surprised to see a young boy standing right behind her.

"Oh! You startled me." said the blond.

"I'm sorry..." said the boy and looked down like he had done something very bad.

"Hey. Don't worry." said Gabrielle and raised the boy's head with her hand looking at him straight in the eyes. "I must admit, you managed to get pretty close to me... Not a lot of people can do that." she added with a smile. She knew that what she had just said was anything but true, as most of the times she had no idea that someone was behind her, but she thought that since the boy didn't know the truth, a small lie like this one wouldn't hurt anyone. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Aaron." he answered in a low voice.

"You have a very nice name, Aaron." said Gabrielle, trying to break the ice between them. "I'm Gabrielle."

"I know who you are..."

"Oh?"

"Everyone knows who you are." replied Aaron and added: "And were..." Gabrielle's heart skipped a beat.

"I don't understand..." she said. The boy didn't answer. "Where are you from?"

"A... village...?"

"You don't sound very certain. Where are your parents? You are too young to be wondering in the woods all by yourself."

"I'm not too young." the boy said defensively.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen winters."

"Oh yeah. Not too young at all..." said Gabrielle sarcastically.

"Hey! I'm not much younger than you!"

"That's- well, that's actually kinda flattering, but it's not the point. Where are your parents?"

"Dead..." said the boy indifferently.

"What? How did they die?"

"There was a big storm a couple of winters ago. It destroyed our entire house. My parents never made it out."

"Oh, wow... I'm so sorry..." said Gabrielle and placed her arm on the boy's shoulder but he took a step away from her.

"I don't need your compassion!" he said defensively.

"Hey. Don't get defensive. I was just trying to-" said Gabrielle but suddenly stopped. "Did you hear something?" she asked.

"No... Should I?"

Gabrielle saw something moving behind the trees. She cautiously walked toward them holding her staff in an attacking position. The last thing the bard saw was a brilliant flash as she was thrown on her back by a strong wave of hot wind. She hit her head on the ground and then everything went black.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :D please remember to review as well. reviews always put a smile on my face :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Finals r finally over! *yay* this means that I'll be able to update more often from now on! :D (but, please, don't take my word too seriously.. Knowing myself, I'll probably find things to do that will keep me from updayting as often as I would like.. :P ) Anyways, this is a relatively longer chapter than the previeous two -whith were awfully short. So... enjoy! And please review :)**

**ivo1617: My thoughts exactly! One cannot just turn into a warlord overnight. You know, u r actually making me rethink the choices i had made for this story! i'm talking about the god being involved with the wind... lol  
**

**5.**

Xena stopped Argo abruptly.

"Did you see that?" said asked looking to the direction of the blinding flash.

"No... But I would if I could move!..." said the man who was still paralyzed and thrown on Argo's back.

"I wasn't talking to you." replied the warrior.

"Oh, suuuure... Talk to the horse! Don't mind the paralyzed man right in front of you!"

"Maybe you wouldn't be in this position if you hadn't tried to kill me."

"I wasn't trying to kill you. Maybe just seriously injure you or something..."

"Yeah... You should have given that idea a bit more thought..."

"Hey! I-"

"Oh shut up already." The man wanted to protest but figured it would be no use. As he gave up trying, Xena got down from Argo, grabbed the reins and walked towards the place where she had seen the light. A few feet away from the spot, she tied Argo's reins to a tree. She rarely did something like that, as she never wanted her horse to feel repressed in any way, but she didn't want to risk Argo getting hurt.

"You two wait here." she said as she walked away.

"It's not like we have a choice..." mumbled the man but not loud enough to be heard by Xena who was already far away.

The warrior walked slowly and cautiously having her one hand on her chakram and holding her sward with the other. She tried to keep her breathing in check so she could hear even the slightest sound. Nothing. She walked a bit further inside the woods. Every so often, she would look behind her just in case someone was following her. Still nothing. Suddenly, she heard a groan. A very familiar groan. She practically ran through the trees to the middle of the forest. She saw Gabrielle lying there, barely moving.

"Gabrielle!" she yelled and ran towards her.

"Xena?"

"Gabrielle are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I have a headache but nothing unmanageable. What happened?" said the bard while rubbing her head.

"I was hoping you could tell me. All I know is that I saw a blinding flash." said Xena and stretched her hand out to help Gabrielle get on her feet.

"Yeah well... That's all I know too... And there was this noise... Like a- Like a hum. A constant humming noise... Then there was the light and the next thing I know, I'm lying on the ground with a terrible headache..." As Gabrielle was talking, she got up, stumbling a little but was able to find her footing quickly.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Xena looked concerned.

"Yes, Xena. I told you, I'm fine." said the girl while brushing the dirt of her skirt. "Hey, where's Aaron?" she asked and looked around when she realized that the boy she'd been talking to was nowhere to be seen.

"Who?" asked Xena.

"Aaron. That was a boy here just moments ago..."

"A boy?"

"Yes. He came a while after you left. He never told me what he wanted though... What I know, is that his name is Aaron, he's fourteen year's old and that he lost his parents during a storm two years ago... He seemed to want something but he didn't get the chance to tell me." The first thing that crossed Xena's mind was: _"Maybe you didn't let him tell you with your none stop talking."_ but instead she looked at Gabrielle somewhat worried.

"Maybe you hit your head or something, cause there is no boy here. And there's no trail we could follow either."

"You don't believe me? Oh that's just great! Thanks!"

"Gabrielle... All I'm saying is that you could have dreamt it. Gods know how long you've been out..."

"Xena, you saw the light! It wasn't that long ago!" the young bard protested and walked towards the direction the boy had came from. _Maybe I did dream it... _she thought but wouldn't admit it. Her dreams had always been vivid and she knew that. But this one was way too real to be just a dream. She walked a bit further until she was able to see a village down the hill.

"There! See?" she said enthusiastically and turned to Xena while pointing at the village. "This has to be where he came from!"

Xena walked next to Gabrielle and looked at the village. She knew that place.

"Come on! Let's go! He's probably there as we speak!" said the blond and started walking hastily downhill. The warrior caught her by the hair and pulled her back.

"Hey! What was that for? It hurt!"

"Gabrielle... I know this village. There hadn't been a bad storm here in ages..."

"Well maybe that's not where his parents died. Maybe he just lives here..."

"He doesn't live here..."

"You can't know that."

"People here abandoned their houses ten winters ago. The place has been empty ever since..."

"What?"

"That's the truth, Gabrielle..."

"How do you know that?"

"Because it was my army that did it." Gabrielle was left looking at her friend, trying to find something to say. It was obvious that she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear more. "We burnt the place to the ground. We forced the people to leave. The strongest ones, we took them as our slaves. We killed so many..." Xena continued.

"What about about the women and children? Did you...?" asked the young bard hesitantly.

"You know that I've never killed any women and children, Gabrielle." replied Xena and sighed.

"Did he- Did Aaron live there?" asked Gabrielle.

"I really don't know... It was so many years ago..." Xena's eyes traveled down the hill. It was like she was watching the whole thing happening again. From the very beginning to the very end.

Gabrielle's eyes followed her friend's gaze. She didn't know why, but the whole situation felt different from the others. Xena had presented it like all the other stories of her past but for Gabrielle, something just didn't add up. Of course she wouldn't say anything. At least not until she was certain.

"But still." said the bard after a moment of silence that seemed to last ages. "Shouldn't we go there? See if the people are back?"

"I don't think they're back, Gabrielle. I promised them that if I ever found out that they had returned to their homes, I'd kill every single one of them..." Gabrielle eyed the warrior confused.

"Why?" she finally asked.

"I used this place as a shelter for my army. It was the perfect hiding place for all of us."

"Where did all the people go?"

"I told you. We kept the stronger ones to be our slaves. Others, we sent to Rome. And some just managed to get away..."

"To Rome?" asked Gabrielle confused.

"I was working with Caesar back then. He needed men for his army and young slave girls..." Xena's last words ringed bad in Gabrielle's ears.

"Young slave girls..." whispered the bard. She couldn't even imagine what had happened to those poor girls. "Wait." she said suddenly and looked up, straight into Xena's eyes. "You said that Caesar needed men for his army. I highly doubt that any men would be willing to go to Rome... I mean... It was all Caesar's doing after all. They wouldn't go and work with their conqueror..."

"It wasn't _all_ Caesar's doing, Gabrielle. I had a part in this too... And you're right. They wouldn't. That why I sent the boys to Rome. Everyone who was under the age of ten..."

"By the Gods, Xena..."

"I never said I enjoyed it..."

"Well. Knowing the old you, I'm pretty sure you did!..." The words just flew off Gabrielle's mouth. The bard didn't even think what she had just said. As soon as she thought of it, her eyes widened. That was just a too harsh thing to say even if it referred to the old Xena. The Xena who fought just to destroy every know nation. The young bard looked at the warrior who was left staring at her. "Oh, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to-" Gabrielle begun to apologize but Xena didn't let her.

"So that's what you think of me, huh?" she asked.

"No... Xena, really, I don't know what came over me. I never meant to say something like that..." Gabrielle looked down trying to hide the fact that tears had filled her eyes. Xena didn't say anything. She knew that the young bard had been through more than enough for one day so she let it go. After all, an other thing she knew was that Gabrielle didn't really mean what she had just said. She tried to hold back a sigh and whispered a slightly forced "Its ok." to the bard. Gabrielle realized it but decided not to make any comments. The situation was already bad and she knew that even the smallest thing could make Xena snap. So she chose to give her friend a half smile instead. The only thing she could think of at that moment was just how much she hated Ares. If only he appeared in front of her...

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :D don't forget to review :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Chapter 6! :) so... That's pretty much all I had already written. From this point and onward, I only have scatered notes. This means that I have to start actually writing again instead of just translating and modifying this story! I just hope I can find a decent plotline, as I have no idea what I wanted to wrote all those years ago! :P Anyways, enjoy! :)**

**ivo1617: Thnx so much for reviewing my story! :D I really enjoy ur reviews and I hope the est of the story keeps u interested :)**

**6.**

Several moments passed and the two women were now relatively calmer than they were before. Gabrielle was leaning against a tree with her hands crossed over her chest and Xena was sitting on a rock, sharpening her sword. Nobody could tell what either of them was thinking about. They both had a very similar empty look on their faces. After a few more moments, it was Gabrielle who broke the silence.

"Xena?"

"Hm?" said the warrior indifferently without taking her eyes away from her sword.

"Where's Argo?" Xena's eyes shot up and looked straight at Gabrielle's.

"Argo..." she whispered and ran towards the direction where she had left her horse.

"Xena? Xena!" yelled Gabrielle and ran after her. She arrived at the spot a few seconds later and found Xena petting Argo and whispering in her ear something like: _'I'll never leave you tied up like this for so long again.' _The bard took a moment to catch her breath. It was then that she noticed the man still lying on the horse's back.

"Um... Xena?" she said looking at the man.

"Oh. He came to capture me. It's not a big deal." answered the warrior indifferently while untying Argo.

"And he's there because...?"

"Because he came to capture me?..."

"That's not what I meant. What I meant why is he _still_ there? I thought you only took captives when absolutely necessary..."

"Yeah. So?" It was obvious that Xena was not in the mood for talking. Gabrielle replied with a simply and barely audible 'Never mind...' and walked towards the man.

"So. What were you thinking?" she asked.

"I came to capture both you and that warrior woman." answered the man, making direct eye contact with the young bard, something that made her feel pretty uncomfortable.

"Why?" she asked.

"Ain't it obvious? Look at me. I need the reward." he said.

"The reward?" asked Gabrielle with a confused look on her face.

"A man named Androkles or something like that has put a prize on your heads." he answered simply.

"Androkles?" asked Gabrielle whose face suddenly turned really pale and she felt dizzy. She took some steps back trying to find somewhere to lean on to prevent herself from falling. She was startled when a hand grabbed her by her shoulder.

"Gabrielle?" asked Xena worryingly as she placed her hand on the bard's shoulder. "Are you okay? I called for you and you didn't respond... And you look awfully pale..."

"I'm fine." said Gabrielle and swallowed. "Just a little head rush. Probably from the running." Xena was anything but convinced but let it go.

"Sure?" she asked before removing her hand from her friend's shoulder.

"Yes." said Gabrielle and gave her best smile to the warrior who left letting out a sigh. As soon as Gabrielle was sure that Xena was far enough and couldn't hear anything she said, she walked again towards the man.

"You know Androkles?" she asked but the man ignored her. "Hey. I'm talking to you!"

"Unparalize me first." said the man simply.

"Unparalize? Is that even a word? And anyway. I don't know how to do that."

"Ask your warrior friend. Imma tell you nothing unless I can move."

"Okay..." said Gabrielle and walked away from the man. "You can as well just stay there. Oh and by the way?" she continued and turned around to face him one more time. "Now that Argo is not tied up, she could wander off any time. I wouldn't be too surprised if you _accidentally_ _dropped_ off her at a... I don't know... _Deserted_ place..." she said emphasizing the words 'accidentally', 'dropped' and 'deserted', took a few steps back still looking at the man straight in the eyes and then turned around to go and meet Xena.

"Hey!" yelled the man but realized that he was left all by himself. He looked at Argo worryingly. "Good horsey. You won't wander off now, will you?" Argo turned, looked at him and snorted in response.

-_**Later at night**_-

Xena and Gabrielle had set up camp a few feet away from a river. They had just finished eating their dinner -fish, not much to the bard's surprise- and they had both been awfully quiet. Gabrielle had talked Xena into 'unparalizing' -the word had been stuck in her mind ever since she heard it- the man and tie him to a nearby tree instead. The warrior was less than happy to do so. After a few moments that seemed like an eternity of silence, the young bard got up, took a fish that was left uneaten and walked towards the man.

"Here." she said. "Thought you might be hungry..." she added and gave him the fish.

"_Might_? I'm dying over here!" said the man, grabbed the fish from Gabrielle's hand and started eating as fast as he could.

"Um... Watch out for any bones... Those things can kill you, you know..." said Gabrielle with an expression of confusion and disgust on her face.

"Yeah, yeah." said the man and added: "You still wanna know about Androkles?"

"I don't wanna know about Androkles. I know everything there is to know about him. I want you to tell me how you met him, where you met him and why he has put a prize on our heads." replied the girl.

"I didn't realize you knew him." said the man, still having fish in his mouth.

"Ugh... Swallow before you talk..." said Gabrielle with an expression of disgust on her face and continued: "And yes. I do know him. Now answer the questions."

"I'm only gonna do it cause you've been nice to me. If it was her asking, you would know nothing!..." he said pointing at Xena.

"You're only doing this cause you don't have a choice. Now talk!" The bard had started losing her patience.

"Okay, okay. So, I was in Pella, right? And I heard that someone was looking for a tall, dark warrior woman and her sidekick. I knew right away it was you two. I went asking around who was looking for you. Turns out Androkles is some kind of general or something and he offered a great prize to anyone who'd bring you two to him."

"How did you know where we were?"

"I've been following for the past four weeks. That warrior friend of yours caught me red handed trying to steal a horse and she made me put in jail. I escaped, found your tracks and started following you. That's pretty much it..." As he finished his narration he handed the plate back to Gabrielle. The bard took it and returned to next to the campfire.

"Hey." she said to Xena as she place the wooden plate down.

"Hey." replied the warrior. "Found out anything?" The young bard didn't reply straight away.

"Not much." she said shaking her head after a moment. "He said he found out about the bounty while he was in Pella, that Androkles is a general or something and that he'd been tracking us down for four weeks... He did give away all this information awfully easily though... He also said you had him put in jail for trying to steal a horse." At that last sentence Xena raised her eyes and looked straight into Gabrielle's.

"Not _a_ horse. He tried to steal Argo. I wasn't just gonna let him walk." she said defensively.

"I never said something like that." said Gabrielle without taking her eyes away from Xena's.

"I know..." replied the warrior and added: "Did he tell you anything else?"

"Like?"  
"I don't know... Like who Androkles is."

"No. He said he doesn't know and that the only reason he came after us is because he needed the reward money." answered the bard.

"Well then. I guess we'll have to find out ourselves." said the warrior and continued: "I think I'm gonna call it a night. I'm pretty tired." She then walked to Argo, took her bedroll out of one of the saddlebags, spread it next to the fire and lied down. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the ground. Gabrielle wasn't feeling sleepy yet, which was weird as she'd always be the one to sleep first. She stayed there for a little while, looking straight in to the fire, lost in her thoughts. The silence was broken by the man, still tied on the tree.

"Hey! Hey you!" he called at Gabrielle who seemed pretty annoyed to be drown from her thoughts.

"I have a name!" she said and added: "And quit yelling! You're gonna wake her up!"

"Yeah, whatever. Look. I really need to go."

"I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to hold it. I can't untie you while Xena is asleep. What tells me that you won't try to run?"

"I'm not gonna run. I just really need to use the bushes!"

"I already told you that I can't do it." Gabrielle insisted.

"Either you untie me now or-"

"Or what?" It was Xena who spoke. Gabrielle turned and looked at her partner who was now wide awake.

"I'm sorry... We woke you up... I told him to be quiet but he _wouldn't listen_." said the bard giving the man a cold look.

"What's going on?" asked Xena.

"He says he needs to use the bushes..."

"Ugh... Untie him. I'll make sure he won't try to escape. Although I hardly think he'd do something like that. Unless of course he's willing to spent the rest of the days paralyzed." she said and turned at the man giving him a 'dare-and-you-are-dead' look.

"I said I won't already! Now come on!" said the man impatiently as Gabrielle started to untie him from the tree.

**A/N: Thanx 4 reading! Don't forget to review! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey :) So, this chapter -just like the ones to follow- is written by the 18 year-old me and not the 6 year-old me. :P As I mentioned on the A/N of the previous chapter, chapter 6 is the last full chapter I had written. The rest are just notes (for both the story and the characters). As a result, chapters 7 to whatever number this is gonna go are entirely written now. In the present! :P Anyways, as always, plz r/r! (My last chapter saddly got 0 reviews... I'd like to get at least _some_ of them... Am I asking for too much?) ~Enjoy~  
P.S.: Thank you for adding my story to your Story Alert Subscriptions! :D**

**7.**

As soon as Gabrielle woke up, she knew something was wrong. Xena's bedroll was empty -nothing unusual there, as the warrior was always the one to wake up first- but the weird thing was that the man -whose name was still unknown to the bard- was gone too. Gabrielle blinked a few times to get used to the light. She sat up and looked around. There was nobody in sight. _'What is going on?'_ she thought and walked towards the river.

"Xena?" she called out but there was no response. _'Well. That's weird.' _she thought when she realized that Xena's clothes were all nicely tucked on a rock near the water. Her sword and breastplate were there as well. Gabrielle leaned towards the water trying to see under the surface. _'Better be careful. The last thing I want is to be all wet and cold.'_ she thought as she put more weight to her hands and leaned even closer. The only thing she could see was her own reflection. She slowly backed away and got to her feet. She raised both hands and covered her eyes, trying to remember what had happened the night before.

"Okay, so. I gave the man fish, he told me everything he knew -probably, Xena went to sleep, then... Then he wanted to use the bushes and Xena told me to untie him. But what happened after that? Oh Gods..." Gabrielle breathed in deeply and took an other look around.

"Xena?" she yelled louder that the last time. Still no response. _'I don't understand... Her clothes are here and she would never leave without her breastplate and her sword...'_ she thought and then it hit her. _'The Chakram. If she went somewhere, her Chakram will definitely _not_ be here.' _The young bard walked towards her friends clothes. She picked them up and froze as she heard something metallic hit the ground. The sound echoed in her ears. She took a hesitant look down, right in front of her, and felt her heart sink in her chest. It was there. Xena's most trusted weapon was there, lying in front of the bard. That meant that Xena had not left their campsite. At least not voluntarily. Panic started to overwhelm the girl as she picked it up.

"Xena!" she cried out, this time as loud as she could. As she did so, she clutched her hand tight around the weapon. So tight that it pierced through her skin, leaving a bloody line across her palm. She hadn't realized it until she felt the worm liquid running down her fingers. She raised her hand watching it as it bled. It hurt, she couldn't -and wouldn't- deny that. But there were far more important thing to be worried about at that moment. She put her hand in the water to wash the blood away and then she wrapped it tightly with a piece of cloth she found in one of Argo's saddlebags. _'That should be enough for the time being...'_ she thought as she tighten the cloth using her other hand and her teeth. She stood up, still uncertain of what to do next. Should she stay there? After all, Xena may have gone somewhere nearby. Or maybe she should find a trail to follow. And what about the man? Where could _he_ be? There were so many questions inside her head. She walked around the camp for a while, trying to find something that would indicate what had happened the night before. She realized that the rope with which the man was tied with was not cut._ 'That means that someone untied him... Was it me?'_ thought the bard while picking up one of the ends of the rope to take a closer look at it. _'Yep. Definitely not cut.'_ All shorts of crazy thing were going through the young bard's head now. Maybe she had untied the man and he attacked them. He knocked her out first and then took Xena. _'No... That's ridiculous. Nobody can just _take_ Xena...'_ Maybe Xena took the man somewhere. _'She would never leave without her breastplate and sword. Not to mention her chakram.' _Gabrielle became more and more anxious by the minute. She had to do something. She just didn't know what. Should she wait there in case Xena returned? Or should she look for a trail to follow in case the warrior was in some kind of trouble? The young bard let out a slow sigh and decided to do the last thing Xena would.

"Ares!" she yelled. "Ares show yourself! I know you are out there!" As soon as she finished the sentence, a blue-ish flash appeared, revealing the God of War.

"What?" he said kinda annoyed. "You can sense me too, now?"

"Just a lucky guess." answered the bard and continued: "Where's Xena?"

"Ah. You can't find your friend, can you?"

"Just tell me where she is!"

"Why should I know where Xena is? It's not like she informs me before taking off. Although that sounds something she should be doing with you." A grin appeared on Ares' face and Gabrielle didn't like that at all. She knew that calling him would only mess things up more. The blonde gave Ares her best icy stare.

"I know you know where she is, so you might as well tell me." she said as calmly as she possibly could.

"Look, blondie. I told you I don't know where she is! And to tell you the truth, I'm just as worried as you are."

"You? Ares, the God of War, _worried_? About a mere mortal? No way!" said Gabrielle sarcastically.

"Hey. Stop with the attitude."

"Tell me where Xena is." Gabrielle was not going to give up.

"Ugh... This conversation is definitely _not_ moving forward... I told you, I _don't_ know!" Ares had started to lose his patience.

"And I _don't_ care! Can't you find her? Concentrate on her aura or something?"

" 'Concentrate on her aura'?"

"I don't know... How is it that you always know where we are?"

"I'm not gonna tell you."

"Just do whatever it is that you usually do and find her. Alright? I don't care whether you tell me how you do it or not!"

The God of War gave the blonde a mischievous smile and disappeared in his blue-ish flash.

"I meant find her and take me with you!" yelled Gabrielle but got no response. She didn't think that Ares would come back anyway.

_'Dammit!'_ Gabrielle didn't even think how much she loathed Ares after what he did to her with the necklace. And it didn't cross her mind to ask him why... All she wanted to know was that Xena was well. She knew that it was too late to ask him now. The God of War would most definitely ignore her if she called him again. She decided that the best thing she could do was to travel to the next village. Find supplies and a place to stay for the night, before starting her search for Xena the next day. She whistled, hoping that Argo would hear her and that -if she did- her whistle was the right one and the horse would come to her instead of sitting down or something like that. A smile of relief appeared on the bards lips as she heard the very familiar neigh coming from her right. She turned her head to see Xena's beautiful horse -Argo was a very beautiful horse, Gabrielle could not deny that even though she didn't seem to be very likable to it- coming in a fast, confident pace.

"Good girl!" said the bard and pet the horse's muzzle. "Okay. We have to get out of here. I trust you won't mind caring me for a little while, huh?" whispered the bard in the horse's ear. She then packed all of her and Xena's staff in the saddlebags. After she put them in place on Argo's back, she mounted as carefully as she could -she definitely didn't want to be flat on her back- and rode off towards the next village.

**A/N: Thnx for reading! Don't forget to review! It only takes a couple of minutes :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Chapter 8! :) I know the story is proessing kinda slowly but lately I don't have any decent plot ideas... I'll keep trying though! :P oh! btw, my laptop crashed the other day and i lost chapters 9 and 10 (that'll teach me not to save my documents..)! now i have to re-write them and i'm so pissed! i can't even remember what i had writen b4 they were erased... but anyways, that's my problem. not yours! You just try to enjoy reading! :D  
Thanks for favoriting and alerting my story! ~Enjoy~  
P.S.: i added a picture as a cover for my story! what do u think? :P**

**ivo1617: Thank u so much for ur reviews! but i'm afraid i can't answer ur question.. not because it'll ruin the plot, but because i don't even know why! :P it's one of the things i'll have to figure out...**

**8.**

Gabrielle pushed the door and entered the inn, water dripping all over her body. It had started raining not too long after she left the campsite. She knew that she would probably be sick the next day but she didn't care. As soon as she set her foot inside, a voice was heard coming from behind the counter.

"Oh my! Look at you, little one! Quick! Come inside before you catch a cold!" said the woman and walked hastily towards Gabrielle. The young bard was still in a state of shock and she didn't even realize the older woman coming to her, taking her by the arm and making her sit at a table next to the fireplace.

"So? What's your name?" asked the woman as she sat opposite Gabrielle.

"Huh?" said the bard who had just snapped out of the shock.

"What's your name? I've never seen you around here before..."

"Um... Gabrielle. My name is Gabrielle..."

"Nice to meet you, Gabrielle. I'm Marianne. It's so nice to have new faces around!"

"Nice to meet you too, Marianne." said Gabrielle and shook hands with the other woman who had already extended her hand. "Are you the owner of-"

"Of this dump? Yeah... That would be me. So, how long will you be staying?" Marianne was full of excitement. Gabrielle was pretty sure that not a lot of people chose to stay there.

"Um... I won't be staying long. I just want a place to sleep for tonight and I'll be on my way tomorrow."

"Oh... Okay..." The woman sounded disappointed.

"Look, I'd love to stay, really. But I have to find my friend. I think she's in some kind of trouble..." The young bard had no idea why she felt sad for the older woman. "Is there a stable or some place else where I can put my horse? I don't want to leave her outside in the rain." _''My horse'... That's new.'_ thought Gabrielle.

"You have a horse?" Marianne's eyes lit in excitement.

"Uh... Yeah... Why?" asked Gabrielle confused.

"My girl just adores horses!" she said and got up. "Come. I'll take you to the stables."

Gabrielle entered the stables holding Argo's reins. A whistle of admiration escaped the girl's lips. The place was huge. Thirty of maybe even forty horses could stay there with no difficulty. Each stall had its own supply of food an water for at least a good month. The young bard had never seen such a beautiful stable.

"You like?" asked the woman and gave Gabrielle a look over her shoulder.

"Like? It's beautiful!" said the young blonde enthusiastically. "I'm surprised there are no horses in here. You seem to take really good care of them..." she continued as she walked by each stall, checking inside.

"Yeah, well... The place has not been the same ever since King Philip died. The people have changed..." said the woman who seemed ready to cry. Gabrielle put her hand on her shoulder. Marianne looked in the bard's eyes.

"Oh, look at me. I'm usually not so emotional about things like that." she said and blinked some tears back. "Feel free to choose whichever stall you like for your horse. I'd choose one of the back ones though. They are warmer and- Well. On a night like this one, warm is good."

"Yeah. Warm is definitely good." said the bard who hadn't realized how cold it actually was until the woman mentioned it. Gabrielle took Argo by the reins and led her in one of the back stalls, just like the woman advised her to. She took the saddle and saddlebags off and placed them on a wooden stool next to the stall door.

"Come." said the woman who was standing near the sable door. "I'll get yo something to eat and then I'll show you your room. You must be pretty tired." she added and exited the stable, walking towards the inn. _'And hungry, too'_ thought the young bard and followed Marianne.

A while later, Gabrielle had finished her dinner -chicken broth and some nut bread- and was now leaning against her hand, her elbow propped against the table. She was ready to go to bed but Marianne had been talking so much -and fast- she found it hard to make her stop. Each time the bard tried to interrupt the older woman's monologue, which was now getting way too personal, Marianne just kept going, not paying attention to the girl in front of her.

"Mom!" a voice was heard coming from the kitchen door. _'Thank the gods...'_ thought Gabrielle. The inn keeper stopped talking and turned her head. The bard looked at the same direction.

"Ah! There you are!" said Marianne and added: " Come meet a guest!"

Gabrielle blinked the sleepiness from her eyes and looked at the girl who approached slowly. _'That's definitely Marianne's daughter.'_ thought the bard as she saw a young slender girl with long light brown hair and worm brown eyes coming towards the table._ 'An exact replica of her mother.' _But besides that, the bard was sure that the young girl also looked like someone else she knew. She just couldn't put her finger on it. The girl, who couldn't be more than seventeen summers old, stood beside her mother. Gabrielle could tell that she was pretty shy.

"Hello." said the bard and smiled. "I'm Gabrielle."

"Ambrosia." said the girl and extended her hand for a handshake. Gabrielle shook hands with her and offered her a seat.

"I really like your name." said the young bard. "I've never heard of anyone named Ambrosia before." It was obvious to Gabrielle that the girl had started to feel more comfortable. She smiled and blushed a little at the bard's compliment.

"Mother says that she named me Ambrosia cause that's what my father used to feed me when I was just a baby." she explained. Gabrielle had a confused look on her face. Only one question in her mind.

"Who's your father?" she asked. She knew that by eating ambrosia -the food of the gods- people became immortal. And she also knew only one god who could give ambrosia to a mortal baby. As the girl opened her mouth to answer, she hoped that her first thought was completely and utterly wrong.

"Ares." said the girl simply, making Gabrielle stop breathing for a moment. Her first thought was anything _but_ completely and utterly wrong...

"Ares as in...?" she managed to say.

"As in Ares the god of War." The words were just flowing off the girls mouth like what was being said was the simplest thing. Gabrielle eyed Marianne and got a look that verified everything that the young bard had heard. Gabrielle tried not to look too shocked. She adjusted herself on the chair and looked at the girl sitting next to her mother.

"That means you are immortal." she said.

"I'm half god. You know. Like Hercules. I don't know if I'm immortal though. I mean... Is Hercules?"

"Um... I don't-"

"Alright. Enough talking. Ambrosia, you should go finish whatever it was you were doing and then go to bed. We have an awful lot of stuff to do tomorrow. And you." Marianne turned to Gabrielle. "You look tired as Tartarus. You should get some rest. Especially if you want to leave in the morning." The bard was momentarily stunned by the woman's words. She was talking to her the way her mother used to talk. Same tone and everything. _'People like that are born to be parents.'_ she thought.

"You are right. I should have called it a night candle marks ago..." replied Gabrielle and got up. Marianne got up after her.

"I'll show you your room." she said. After Gabrielle said her goodnights to Ambrosia, she turned to leave but remembered something Marianne had told her earlier.

"I heard you are pretty fond of horses. If you are up early tomorrow, you can come see mine. She's at the stable. And who knows? Maybe I'll even let you ride her for a while." she said to the girl whose eyes lit instantly and a wide smile was formed on her face.

"You can count on it! " said the girl as Gabrielle followed Marianne through a door that led to the rooms.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! plz review :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Ok everyone. I had to re-write this chapter cause -as I said on the A/N of the previous chapter- I somehow lost this and the next one... :\ So anyways, I couldn't remember it exactly the way I had written it but I did my best :) Plus, it's the second longest chapter so far! 2,528 words! (yay me :P ) Also, thank u for reviewing and alerting my story :) So, that's all from me. Now on with the reading! Oh! and don't forget to review :D**

**kawagirl1993 & Darkwingedperson: I have absolutely no idea! Although I don't think I'll take it any further than the show did... I'm not sure yet.**

**ivo1617: I think that Gabby will take her time as far as finding Xena is concerned.. still working on it though :)**

**9.**

Gabrielle opened her eyes as the first rays of the sun entered through her open window. _'Gods, I _really_ hate mornings!'_ she thought as she rubbed her face and got up. She was a little disoriented at first -found it hard to keep her eyes open- but quickly remembered everything that had happened the day before.

"So it was _definitely_ not a dream..." she said to herself. As the young bard walked around the room, she realized that she was so tired the night before, she had gone straight to bed without looking around to see what it was like. After putting her boots on, she wandered around for a while. She knew she had to leave but she just wanted to see everything first. She opened a huge wooden closet which was across the bed, she opened every single drawer she could find and she ended up being completely blown away by the size of the bathroom. She walked inside slowly, like she was afraid it was a trap or that something would go terribly wrong if she entered too fast. When inside, she traced her fingers across the bathtub -which was big enough for two or maybe even three- and cursed herself for not thinking to take a bath earlier. Gods knew just how much she needed a warm, relaxing bath. She looked outside her window and wondered whether she had enough time to take a quick bath or not. The bard figured that she would probably be on the rode for some time and she wouldn't have the opportunity to take a warm bath for gods know how long. _'Warm bath.'_ The phrase kept floating around her mind. _'I guess getting cleaned up before I leave won't hurt anyone.'_ she finally decided, exited the room and walked towards the kitchen where she knew Marianne would probably be at.

Walking down the long hallway, Gabrielle had the chance to see what the entire inn looked like. There were doors -some closed and some opened- on both her sides. As far as she could see, each room had a big bed and an even bigger closet and probably a huge bathroom. The girl couldn't help but wonder why this place was so empty. She remembered what Marianne had told her. That ever since the death of King Philip nothing had been the same. She could see this place being full of people. Full of life. But now, she wasn't even sure if there were other guests there. The bard kept walking without really noticing where she was going. She didn't even realize that she had reached the door that led to a staircase which would take her directly to the back door of the kitchen. She gained complete acknowledgment of her whereabouts only when she almost hit her head on the closed door.

"Nice one, Gabrielle." soliloquized the bard and opened the door. She had no idea how it was and she knew where she was going. It was like her legs were leading the way on their own.

"Good morning, little one!" greeted Marianne when she saw Gabrielle entering the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?"

"Like a rock!" replied Gabrielle and gave the older woman a wide smile. The bard had just realized how rested she felt. _'Gods, I really needed to sleep on a bed.'_ she thought.

"Leaving so early?" she asked and added: "I mean, I know you told me you wanted to leave early but- the sun just went up."

"Oh no. I'm not leaving yet. I thought I should take a bath first. And, after all, I did promise to Ambrosia to show her the horse."

"A girl of her word, aren't you, little one?"

"Well, I never liked to break my promises."

"You know, you rarely find people like this nowadays..." said Marianne mostly to herself and then added: "Sit down, dear. I'll get you some breakfast and then I'll go and fill your tub with nice, hot water. How's that sound?"

"That sounds great! Thank you!" said the bard and started eating as soon as a bowl full of gruel was placed in front of her.

A while later, after Gabrielle had finished eating her breakfast, Marianne peeped through the back door of the kitchen.

"You're all set. Go whenever you like. Although now would be a good time. With the water being hot and all..." she said with a smile to the young blonde who had been exploring the kitchen. Gabrielle looked at her and immediately put the wooden spoon she was holding back to its place.

"Oh don't worry about that." said Marianne. "Feel free to search anything you want."

Gabrielle eyed her for a moment. _'That's weird.' _she thought.

"Um... Okay. Thank you for filling the tub for me!" said the girl and left, eager to finally get inside that tub.

* * *

"Oh gods, that was nice!..." said Gabrielle as she got out of the tub and wrapped herself with a big towel. After she was dry enough, she put on her clothes, packed the rest of her staff -a couple of scrolls she had unpacked and her quill- and set off. Her plan was plain and simple. She would get to the stable, put everything in the saddlebags, let Ambrosia see Argo and then leave. There was only one problem. She had absolutely no idea where she should go. She figured Pella would be the place to start since the man had told her that Androkles was there, but then what? What if Androkles had left? But the bard decided to follow her initial plan anyway. She didn't want to bother her mind with things that might not be the way they were supposed to. If something went wrong, she would deal with it then and not a moment earlier.

"There you are!" Ambrosia was already at the stables, brushing Argo's tail. "I thought you said you were gonna leave early." she added and smiled.

"Oh trust me. It _is_ early. For me anyway." answered Gabrielle and smiled back. "I see you two met each other."

"She's gorgeous!" The enthusiasm was clear in the young girl's voice. "What's her name?"

"Argo."

"Beautiful..." Gabrielle was not sure if that was for the horse or its name. "How long do you own her?"

"She's actually not mine. She's my friend's. And it's been this way for a very long time." said the bard.

"And where's your friend now?"

"That's what I'm going to find out. I'll be on my way to Pella soon."

"You think she's there?"

"I don't know. I do know that a certain man I really want to talk to is there though."

"Why did your friend leave you behind?" All this time, Ambrosia's eyes had not left the horse's tail. She just kept brushing and brushing it...

_'Gods, so many questions!'_ thought Gabrielle but decided to answer. She hated being rude. "She didn't exactly leave me. It was a- an unexpected departure..."

"What's her name?"

"Xena." At that, the girl's eyes shot up and looked straight into Gabrielle's.

"Xena?"

"Yes. Why?" asked the bard, curiosity setting in.

"You are her friend?" The girl's eyes narrowed and her lips closed tightly together. Her tone made Gabrielle swallow. _'She looks so much like Ares...'_ thought the bard.

"Yes... Why? Did she do something to you?" the young blonde was afraid of the answer she would get. She was almost a hundred percent sure that Ambrosia would tell her that she hated Xena for killing a member of her family or destroying her house or something like that.

"She saved my brother's life. My whole family is forever grateful to her!" said the girl.

"When did that happen?" asked the bard after a brief moment of silence.

"Oh it was a long time ago. She had a different horse back then... No wonder I didn't know that Argo is hers."

"Back when is was with Borias?"

"I... um... I was really young back then. I actually don't remember anything. Everything I know, I've heard from my mother. I was barely a couple of summers old when it happened..."

"That sounds reasonable..." said Gabrielle caught up in her thoughts. "So? How about that ride we talked about?" she said a moment later, looked at Ambrosia and smiled. The girl smiled back and headed towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" asked the bard curiously.

"To get my saddle."

"I have a perfectly good saddle over here, you know..."

"Oh I know. I just thought that you wouldn't want me using your friend's saddle. I mean, I know it's no big deal but some people are just way too protective of their horses... And judging by the way Argo looks, I can safely say that Xena is really into her. Won't let just anybody ride her..."

"Well. I won't tell if you don't tell." said Gabrielle mischievously.

"Seems we have ourselves a deal then." said the girl and added: "Come. I show you the practice field!"

"You have a practice field?" asked the bard surprised while putting the saddle on Argo.

"Wow!" exclaimed Gabrielle as she and Ambrosia arrived at the practice field. It was a huge open space with every kind of obstacle for the horse to practice. "This is amazing!"

"I know right?" said the girl enthusiastically.

"Do you and your mother own this?"

"Oh no. It would cost way too much! It for the entire village to use. And even some neighboring villages too!"

"I must say, this entire village is pretty amazing."

"You should have seen it before King Philip's death! Full of people! And the market place was to die for! You like shopping, right?"

"I love it! Xena on the other hand thinks that shopping is just buying the necessities so I hardly ever get to enjoy a day of pointless browsing." she replied and smiled. "You know, your mother told me that ever since the death of Philip things have been rough here. Why is that?"

"Well... King Philip had done an awful lot to help our village. The people here really worshiped him. When we heard that he was dead, it was like our vital organs shut down. I don't know if you understand what I mean. It's just- you know. He really cared for us." said Ambrosia and then turned to face Gabrielle straight in the eyes. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Uh... Yeah. I guess..."

"Everyone says that he died because of a chronic disease. You know, one of those no healer can treat. Wanna know what I think? He was murdered. I think it was someone very close to him too. That man, Pausanias or something. He never seemed legit. Always having this fake smile on his face. I say _he_ did it and then covered the whole thing up. After all, he was Philip's right hand man. He had all the time and chances he wanted to do it. And just about everyone knows how jealous he was of the King." Ambrosia's words rang like thunderbolts in Gabrielle's ears. She knew that Pausanias was the jealous type, but to kill the King of Macedonia himself? That was just too much even for him.

"That's a very serious accusation to make, Ambrosia. And especially without any actual evidence." said Gabrielle trying to talk some sense into the young girl. However, knowing Pausanias the way she did, she wouldn't be too surprised if what was being said was in fact true.

"That stays between me and you! You gave me your word!" said Ambrosia -who had already mounted Argo- and took off full speed.

Gabrielle sighed and leaned against the fence. She was watching Ambrosia running around the field, jumping piles of wood, taming Argo like it was her own horse when Ares appeared behind her in his usual blueish flash.

"I see you met my little girl." he said and the bard turned sharply. "Brilliant, isn't she?"

"Ares! What in Tartarus-" said Gabrielle and walked hastily towards him.

"Was I thinking? Doing? What in Tartarus what?" said Ares not letting the bard finish.

"You have a daughter?"

"I'm not the first and I definitely won't be the last one of the gods to have a child."

"You fed her ambrosia! You made her a god! Why?"

"Ares' child should be a god."

"That's your excuse?"

"Works for me so... Yep." said Ares simply. '_Why am I telling her these things? I don't have to tell her anything! I'm a god for Zeus' sake!'_

"Did you find Xena?" asked the bard anxiously. _'How could I forget to ask him that?'_

"Yep."

"Take me to her!"

"Sorry. No can do."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Can you at least tell me where she is?"

"Nope. I've sworn to secrecy."

"Secrecy? To whom?" Gabrielle's could feel her anger and frustration rising.

"Don't you ever shut up?" said the God of War and disappeared in his blueish flash.

Gabrielle clenched her teeth and fists. Her anger and frustration were now overwhelming. _'That's _it_! I've had it!'_ she thought. After taking a few moments to calm herself, she realized that she needed to have plan in order to find -and possibly save- Xena. Since she had no idea where she was or where to go, she decided that asking Ambrosia and Marianne some questions would be the best thing she could do. The bard thought over and over again the questions she should ask in order to take the answers she needed but without revealing too much about herself, Xena or her plan. After all, Ares was probably a constant visitor there and she had no intention at all of letting him in on her intentions. _'Looks like I'm not going anywhere just yet.'_ thought the young bard and waved at Ambrosia who had a huge smile on her face.

**Thnx 4 reading :D Please leave a review! If u have any plot ideas, feel free to share :) I have no idea where this is going...**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hey everyone! :D Chapter 10 is up! Soooo sorry for the delay. looks like my muse left me for a while... i had absolutely no ideas as to where to go with the story... but anyways, here is a chapter about Xena. i figured i ignored her long enough. :P so. i hope you enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it! thanks everyone who reviewed, favorited (that's how you say it, right?) and alerted my story! :)  
**

**ivo1617: Nothing's wrong with the inn :P there just not a lot of people left in the village and not many of them chose to stay there.. :P thanks for telling me about the mistake! i have no idea what i was thinking when i wrote that part.. i probably wanted to write "a bowl of gruel" or something... anyways, thanks again! and thanks for reviewing too! keep doing that! hahaha  
**

**FallenAngeLXWP: thank you for talking the time to review my story! :D as you will notice, this chapter is about Xena. so it's not going to be just on Gabrielle's POV. however, Gabrielle and Ambrosia are going to be the two main characters so it's only natural that i'm going to elaborate a bit more on them than on Xena. but this doesn't mean that she won't play a important part :)  
**

**Rappel: Thank you for reviewing! i hope you enjoy this chapter as well :)  
**

**Guest: I don't know if you'll read that since you don't have an account but still i want to thank you for leaving me a review! i'm so glad you like my story :D i hope you'll keep reading it! and, by the way, i do believe that ''continuation'' is a word! lol  
**

**10.**

Xena opened her eyes. The sun blinded her. She was dizzy and couldn't stay focused for long. She had a headache that was getting stronger by the minute. The warrior tried to move, only to realize that she couldn't. The only part of her body she could move with a relative ease was her head. She looked at her arms. They were both tied on wooden poles, stuck in the ground. She tried to move them but she was so weak, she could barely keep her eyes open.

"I see you are awake." Xena tensed. How could someone get so close to her without her realizing? The warrior tried to turn her head, which -as it turned out- was the only part of her body she could move relatively ease. She felt so light-headed. As soon as she was able to focus without having the feeling of her stomach turning, she turned to look at the man ho ad so quietly approached her. "Are you uncomfortable in any way? I sure hope so." he said mockingly.

"What do you want?" she asked putting her cold face on. Xena had a habit of never asking someone who they were. She always thought it made her look if not weaker, then definitely inferior to her opponents, whoever they were.

"Right to the point as always, huh?" answered the man. "Of course, you do realize that if I tell you what I want then all interest will be lost at once, right? And I don't believe that you are one of those people who like losing interest too soon. Because- Let's face it. When you find out what my true intentions are, what's left to stop you from killing me? And I know that you can do it. I really do. Don't think that I don't know that you can break free of your bonds any at moment and kill me using just your hands. I know all about you, Princess. And all about what you can do. With or without your sward and your precious little Chakram. So don't you think, not for one moment, that I'm as stupid as to tell you the plan. Cause I'm not. In fact, I'm gonna leave now. Let you- take in your surroundings. Might be proven useful. Who knows..."

As the man was talking, he kept walking round and round the place Xena was bounded. He was moving his arms around and making weird expressions. Xena tried to follow him with her gaze but found it hard to do and stopped after a while. Even after the man stopped talking, he was still moving around the warrior, his eyes never leaving her. As the time passed, Xena realized that it was now easier to move and the dizziness had almost worn off. Without thinking it through, she pulled her right arm using all the strength she had in her. Nothing happened. The wooden pole didn't even move. The warrior saw a small smile appear on the man's face. He knew it would be impossible for her to break free. At least for the time being.

"Now, now." he said. "You can try all you want but I can assure you that you are not going anywhere. You can't possibly believe that we would capture the infamous Warrior Princess and not take the necessary precautions now, can you? After all. What will happen to your little friend if you escape? Think about it." Xena's eyes got smaller and she gave the man her coldest look yet.

"Where is she?" she asked in a low voice. She didn't use Gabrielle's name in case the man was bluffing.

"There you go again. You just want to find out the ending ever since the beginning. Well guess what. I'm not going to tel you. You will ruin the game. It won't be interesting at all if you know."

"The game? You think this is a game?" The warrior's patience grew less and less by each passing minute.

"Of course it is." said the man smiling.

"You won't think that when I get my hands on you." she said pulling her right arm once more, this time even more aggressively. She felt the pole loosen up a bit. _'A couple of good pulls and I'm out of here.'_ she thought.

"So." she heard the man saying. "I'm off now. I believe that you got plenty of information for now." he added and started walking away. "Name's Arminius by the way. Remember that." he said without looking back.

Xena watched the man until he was out of sight. When she was absolutely sure that no one was around, she pulled her arm one more time. The pole moved and now it was certain that it would only take one strong pull in order for the warrior to release her arm. She was about to do so when a very familiar bluish flash appeared. _'Not again.'_ she thought and turned her head to the direction of the God of War.

"Hello there, Xena." he said. "Got yourself in a bit of a situation, haven't you? Well, that's a first." he added and took a few steps closer.

"What do you want Aries?" said the warrior. "Can't you see that I'm busy?"

"Busy? Oh yes. Of course you are busy. I mean look at you. I can't even remember the last time you were captured. Unwillingly anyway." It was obvious to Xena that Aries was enjoying himself.

"I need to find Gabrielle." she said. "She's in trouble."

"Well. Last time I saw her, she was quite alright. Pretty happy too. You see, she has found herself this nice establishment and -I must say- I think she's going to be staying there for a while. At least that's what I got from out little conversation."

"Where is she?" she asked a bit more relaxed now that she knew that Gabrielle was alright.

"Oh... Sorry. I can't really tell you."

"What?" Xena gritted her teeth.

"I didn't tell her where you are so I think it's only fair not to tell you where she is." answered the God of War.

"And since when are you in favor of fair play, Aries?"

"Since I have something to win out of it." he simply answered.

"Figures." murmured the warrior. "So what's in it for you?"

"Forget it Xena. I'm not blabbing. I'm not letting the cat out of the bag. I'm not spilling the beans. I'm not going to tell you!"

"Okay, okay. I got it..." she said, having a confused look on her face.

"Good. So, I think I'm gonna get going now. I got lots to do." said Aries, smiled at the warrior and disappeared just as suddenly as he had appeared. As soon as the God of War left, Xena prepared for her final pull. But something inside her made her think twice. _'What if it's a trap?'_ she thought. _'What if they have archers waiting for me to make a mistake? That won't be good... At least Gabrielle is safe. For now... Oh gods...'_ she sighed. This was one of the rare ties the warrior had absolutely no idea as to how to proceed. She always had a plan. Even if she didn't always realize it from the very beginning, there was always something in her head, just waiting to get out. But not this time. Now, she felt completely lost and pretty much useless. She hated that feeling almost as much as she hating the situation she was in. _'I have to do something. I can't just sit here.' _

Little did she know, she wasn't going to be sitting there for much longer. A man approached her. It wasn't Arminius this time. The man was of medium height, light and pretty thin. Young and innocent looking. Someone Gabrielle would fall for. In contrast to Arminius who was more like Xena's type. Tall, dark and really handsome. Xena had thought that if she had met Arminius back during her warlord days or under different circumstances, she would probably be all over him by now. Thoughts like this one, rarely made their way to the warrior's mind. But she welcomed them when they did.

The man stood over the warrior and looked at her. He had a crooked smile on his face and some strands of hair were getting in front of his eyes. Xena could tell he was new at this. He was nervous and at a momentarily loss for words. He took his helmet off and brushed his blond hair away from his eyes.

"I'm Ennius." said the young man.

"You're new at this." said Xena.

"What?" he asked confused.

"You're new at this." she repeated. "You never, ever, under any circumstances give your name away in the very beginning of a conversation. Not that what we are having now could be qualified as a conversation but still. Now that I know who you are, it would be much easier for me to find you once I escape."

"And what makes you think you will escape?"

"You obviously don't know about me."

"Oh you see, that's where you are wrong. I know everything there is to know about you. It's you who knows nothing about me." The man had nerve. Nobody this young had ever spoken to Xena using that tone of voice. He sounded threatening. It was clear that he meant every word he was saying.

"I get a feeling you're not going to tell me much about you." said the warrior.

"All in good time, Xena." said Ennius and added: "For now, I'm here to check on you. Make sure you're not trying to escape. We wouldn't want that happening." Ennius, unlike Arminius, was looking at Xena right in the eyes. His cold stare made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. A quite unusual feeling for her. It was like the young man was staring right into her very soul. Xena hated that. She felt like he could read her mind. The warrior then realized that other than being strapped to two wooden poles, nobody had treated her like they would a prisoner. There was no torture, no beating, no nothing. _'Maybe it's all part of their little game.'_ she thought. But what kind of sick game was that? She couldn't even imagine what was going through these people's minds. All she wanted was to get out of there and find Gabrielle. Make sure she was okay and have things turn back to normal again. Nothing more and nothing less.

Xena was lost in her thoughts and she didn't notice Ennius' annoyed stare.

"For your information," he said "we'll be moving you to a cell inside the castle. It gets pretty cold in there. I think you're gonna like it." The sarcastic tone in his voice made Xena want to punch him. The young man sighed and decided to leave. But before doing so, he made sure to check the two poles Xena was tied to. He noticed that one of them had started to loosen up and he chuckled. "You're bored of us already? I see you were trying to escape. You've only been here for like two days you know."

"Two days?" asked Xena.

"That's right. Two whole days. You've been unconscious most of the time. I might have something to do with that." he answered and left the warrior alone. Xena decided that there was no point in trying to escape now. Her captors obviously knew that she would try that. Especially since the only thing between her and her freedom were two wooden poles stuck in the ground. Surely there had to be something else behind it. Something much more elaborate than that. The only thing the warrior could do was to wait. Wait for them to move her inside. And then wait for them to make a potentially fatal mistake that would ruin their plan.

**A/N: I've chosen the names of the men based on their meanings. Arminius means "army man" and Ennius means "predestined", "favorite of God". They are both Latin names. Anyways, thanks for reading! plz review! :D  
P.S.: Sorry for the extended A/N at the beginning! :P  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: And ta da! :P Chapter 11! I obviously had nothing to do so I spent my time writing this :) Plus, I'm going to London next Thursday so I wanted to upload a bit more frequent from today until Wednesday :D So my goal is to upload at least an other chapter! I'll try really hard. Promise! haha anyways, now on with the story! (Back to Gabrielle's POV) hope u like it!  
**

**FallenAngelXWP: no problem! thanks for reviewing! i hope u like this one :)  
**

**Guest: Of course it's okay with me! haha i love getting reviews! (is it so obvious? :P ) glad u like the previous chapter! i hope the same goes for this one too! u r Argentinean? cool! i probably used latin names cause i spent two years at school studying latin... can't say i enjoyed it too much :P oh and ur english is gr8 btw!  
**

**11.**

"I'm so happy you are staying!" exclaimed Marianne and sat opposite the young blonde. "I've been meaning to ask you to stay at least one more day. We hadn't have any guests here almost from the time-"

"King Philip died. Yeah." Gabrielle completed the innkeeper's sentence. "I was wondering if you could tell a bit more about this." Gabrielle's words were quiet. Almost like a whisper. It was like she didn't want anyone else to hear her.

"What do you want to know?" asked Marianne.

"I don't know. Anything. When he died... How he died... Why he was so important to your village... Anything."

"Well, everyone knows when he died. What's interesting is how he died."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone says he had an incurable illness. Every healer in Macedonia had visited him but no one could figure out what was wrong. He just kept getting worse and worse every day. Until he just- died. It happened at the wedding ceremony of his daughter Cleopatra to Alexander I of Epirus."

"I don't see how that's weird." said Gabrielle. She wanted to see if Marianne thought what Ambrosia did. That Philip was murdered. Marianne hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure she could trust a girl she had just met the day before, no matter how nice and innocent she seemed. Gabrielle understood the innkeeper's hesitation. If she was in a situation like this one, she would probably act the same way. Marianne took a deep breath.

"That's what most of the people think happened." she said. "There are the occasional few -such as myself- who think that something much darker happened. Much more... Evil..." The bard found herself engaged to the innkeeper's words.

"Do go on." she said with a hint of impatience in her voice. "I mean... If you want to, of course." she added, not wanting Marianne to form the wrong opinion about her.

"Well, there was this man, Pausanias. He and Androkles were the King's bodyguards." Gabrielle shivered upon hearing the men's names. Luckily, the shiver went unnoticed to Marianne who kept talking. "There had been some talking a little while before Philip's death that both Pausanias and Androkles were after his place. Now everybody knew that it's impossible to become king when there's a rightful heir but these two just didn't seem to understand. You are not from around here but if you were, you'd know how fake this smile Pausanias used to put on when he visited our village escorting the King was. You know, I've never told anyone about this but during their last visit to the village, they dinned here -probably cause it's the only tavern there is until the next village. Anyway, I went outside just for a moment and when I came back, I found Pausanias behind the counter messing around with the ale. I don't think he saw me. He was placing the bottle back in the shelf when I walked in making myself known. He came up with a lame excuse of how he wanted some more ale but I was not around so he couldn't ask for it or something. When I tried pouring him some, he left saying he was not thirsty anymore. I don't know if he actually did something to it but I threw it away as soon as he left."

"By the gods..." whispered Gabrielle. "Marianne are you sure?"

"Are you doubting me?" the innkeeper gave her a cold look.

"What? No, no. Of course not." she said defensively. "It just took me by surprise. That's all."

"It's ok. I guess I'm taking everything too serious. Anyway, enough about that. What about you? What do you do? Going somewhere specific?" said Marianne with a smile trying to lighten up the conversation.

"Well..." started Gabrielle, relieved that they were not going to talk about Phillip any more. "I am a bard... And right now I'm trying to find a friend of mine who's missing. So... no. I'm not going anywhere specific."

"A bard? Wow... Maybe you could tell some stories tonight? If you don't mind of course. I think it would really help us get more customers..."

"Uh... Yeah. Sure, why not? I'd love that." said Gabrielle and smiled widely. "But you should know that it's been quite some time since I last told a story in public. For the last couple of years, it was just me and my friend..."

"Oh don't you worry about that dear. I'm sure your stories will be great. Now, tell me about this friend of yours. You have no idea where he is?" The innkeeper seemed eager to learn more about what the bard was up to.

"Actually it's a ''she'' and no. I have absolutely no idea where she might be." A few seconds passed and both women were quiet. "You know," the bard added after a brief moment of hesitation. "my friend's name is Xena." To that, Marianne tensed. "Ambrosia told me that she once saved her brother's life."

"Xena?" she murmured.

"Yes..." replied Gabrielle and added: "Is it true? Did Xena save your son's life?"

"You can say that, yes. In a way, she did save his life. But that was a long time ago..." The bard knew that Marianne wasn't feeling very comfortable talking about this. But the innkeeper wanted to let out all the pain she was feeling. "It was a bit over fifteen summers ago. He hadn't even turned one yet. I had taken both him and Ambrosia with me that day. We didn't own the tavern yet and I was working wherever I could find a job to earn us a decent living. While we were traveling to the next village, we run into some slave traders. I panicked. I hid -as quickly and as well as I could- the children in the nearby bushes. Apparently, it wasn't a good hiding place. Not if Xena herself is there..."

"Xena?" interrupted the bard.

"Yes. She was very young. Only around fourteen or even thirteen summers old and she already was the slave traders' leader. I remember how she got off her horse and walked towards me. She nodded to one of her men and he immediately pointed his sword at me. She asked me if I was alone. I swore on my life that there was nobody else there. She told me to be careful cause if she found anyone else, I _would _indeed pay it with my life. I tried to assure her that I was alone but she was anything _but_ convinced. She and her men started searching around. By then, I had stopped breathing. I was sure that that would be mine and my children's end. I think part of me actually wanted to die... I couldn't bare if my babies got hurt or killed or captured... Death seemed like a good solution at the time. For all three of us." Marianne wiped a tear that escaped her eye and continued her narration. "I'm completely sure she found them in the bushes cause when she walked towards their hiding spot and searched, she looked at me like she was saying 'I know where they are.' but she just left them there. When one of her men went to look at the same place, she stopped him telling that they should go since there was no one else there and I looked way too weak to be a slave. So you see, in a weird way she saved both their lives..." Gabrielle was left staring at the woman in front of her for a long moment.

"Wow..." she said after a while. "Um... Marianne? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, little one."

"If Ambrosia was there too, then why does she believe that Xena saved only her brother's life and not hers too?"

"You are a smart one." said the innkeeper and smiled. "I told her that. Ambrosia, being who she is, was never in real danger. It was Aaron who was completely unprotected..." Gabrielle, who was drinking from her cup, coughed. "Hey. Are you okay?" asked Marianne worryingly.

"I'm fine." said the bard. "Aaron?" she asked after wiping her mouth.

"Oh yes. Silly me. I never told you my son's name... It's Aaron."

_'I knew it couldn't have been just my imagination!'_ though Gabrielle. "Where is he now?" she asked.

Marianne hesitated. "Um... We don't really talk about him..."

"Oh..." the bard opened her mouth to say that it wasn't necessary for Marianne to tell her why but she was once again interrupted but the innkeeper.

"You see, one day, a couple of years after that incident, Ambrosia took Aaron down by the river to play. I know I shouldn't have let them go by themselves. I mean, Aaron was only three summers old and Ambrosia not over five but I figured that nothing could happen. The river was near the farm I used to work on back then, plus, a lot of the village women would go there to wash their clothes or get water or something so... You get my point, right? I was so sure that nothing bad could happen... And yet it did. Something bad did happen..." Gabrielle's eyes were filled with confusion and sadness. "Ambrosia came back running. Her head was bleeding and she was so scared... She wasn't able to remember what had happened. She still isn't actually. All she could tell me was that there was a constant humming noise and after a few moments a flash of light. And then everything had gone black. She woke up a few minutes later and Aaron was gone. That's when she really panicked and decided to come back."

"By the gods..." murmured Gabrielle. The young bard thought it would be best if she didn't mention that she had actually met Aaron and she had also heard the noise and seen the light Ambrosia was talking about. "I'm so sorry..." managed to say.

"It took a long time for Ambrosia to finally get it through her head that it was not her fault Aaron went missing. She's the type of girl who will blame herself for everything even if it has nothing to do with her or her doings... So, please don't mention anything about Aaron to her. I don't want all these old feelings of self-blame returning..."

"I know someone who's just like that..." said Gabrielle in a low voice and added with a slightly forced smile: "Don't worry. I won't say anything to her. I give you my word."

"Thank you so much, little one." said Marianne and returned the smile. "So," she continued after taking a deep breath and relaxing a bit "do we have ourselves a deal for tonight? The storytelling I mean. We have a bard with us and personally, I really want to see what you have inside that pretty head of yours." Gabrielle's smile was not forced this time. It was a genuine one. The first real smile she'd had in quite a few days.

"Of course we have a deal. But- how will the people know about me? I mean... It's not like they know I'm here or something..."

"Oh don't you worry about that. Leave it on me. Now. I want you to go and get some rest, alright? You'll have to be fresh for tonight's big event." said the innkeeper as she rose from her seat picking up their cups and headed towards the kitchen.

" 'The big event'..." told Gabrielle to herself with a somewhat proud smile and walked to her room.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Plz leave a review! :) I'll try to have the next chapter done and up by Wednesday! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: So there you go! One more chapter up until Wednesday, as promised! :P i hope you guys like it! I have come to the conclusion that this story is gonna take a while to finish.. with each chapter i write, new ideas come to mind and i jusy have to include them! hahah anyways, now on with the story :)**

**FallenAngelXWP: lol glad u liked it! I thought it was a bit too much but it was the only decent back story i could think of! :P**

**Kamalackapacka: thanks! the story of the king is not actually entirely fictional. King Philip of Macedonia was in fact murdered by his bodyguard Pausanias during his daughter's wedding -Cleopatra- with Alexander I of Epirus. Pausanias was captured right after the act by three other of Philip's bodyguards and was killed by their hands. As you can see, i've modified the original story but parts of it are still there. :P (P.S.: ur name does sound funny! lol and it took me like three attempts until i finally wrote it correctly! :P )**

**12.**

As Ambrosia walked towards the main room of the inn, she heard people cheering and asking for more. _'More of what?'_ wondered the girl, took a few steps closer and peeped her head from the kitchen door. _'We haven't seen so many customers in years...'_ she thought when she realized that the whole room was full of people.

"Okay. I think that's enough for tonight." she heard her mother saying to the crowd.

At that, she walked inside the room. She couldn't help but smile when she saw Gabrielle sitting on a chair surrounded by -what seemed to her- at least thirty people. The young bard had been telling stories all night long and yet the crowd kept asking for more. Marianne was standing next to the blonde bard and was trying to convince the customers that it was late and that they should all get some sleep. But no matter how hard she tried, or how loud she yelled, she just couldn't make them stop. The innkeeper leaned and whispered something to Gabrielle's ear that made the bard smile. Gabrielle stood up and almost immediately everyone went quiet. Ambrosia approached, found an empty chair and sat, eager to hear what was next. The young bard cleared her throat.

"Okay." she started. "I have one last story for you, but that's it. After that, I'd really like to get some sleep..." The people clapped.

"Is it an other Xena story?" asked a man from the crowd.

"No. No, it's not an other Xena story. It's the tale of Orpheus and his one true love, Eurydice."

When they heard Gabrielle's words, the people started whispering. Ambrosia could understand phrases like 'I really wanted it to be an other Xena story' or 'This is gonna be boring'. But what they were saying didn't seem to have any impact on the blonde girl who was still standing in front of them. She was determined to tell the story she wanted, no matter if that would displease some of her listeners. It was a story that was in the bard's mind for quite some time and this was the first time she would tell it in front of an audience. Gabrielle knew she was good in telling stories about her adventures with Xena but she wanted to try something different this time. She sat down, cleared her throat one more time, took a deep breath and started:

"I sing the tale of Orpheus. A legendary musician, poet and prophet. It is said that his music could charm all living things and even rocks. Orpheus had a wife. Eurydice. Eurydice was known for her beauty and many believed that she was a Nymph or even the daughter of Apollo, the God of Light. They loved each other like no man has ever loved before. On their wedding day, Orpheus played the most joyful song and his bride danced through the meadow. Oh they were so happy... But things were about to change." By that time, everyone had fallen silent. A small smile started forming on the bard's mouth.

"One day, a satyr saw young Eurydice and, charmed by her beauty, he chased and chased her. Poor thing had nowhere to go. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest full of vipers. A bite on the heel was more than enough to kill the girl instantly.

Orpheus, realizing that nobody had seen his wife for a long time, begun searching for her. He searched until the crack of dawn. It was then that he stumbled upon the vipers' nest finding the motionless body of his love. Consumed with grief, he played such a sad and mournful song that all the Nymphs and gods wept. It was their advice the young musician followed by traveling to the underworld to retrieve Eurydice's soul.

It wasn't an easy goal to achieve. Hades and Persephone never allowed a soul to return to the world of the living. But the boy's music soften their hearts. His song was so sweet that even the Furies wept. Thus, he was allowed to take Eurydice back to the world of the living. But there was one condition. He had to walk in front of his wife and -no matter what happened- should he turn around to see her. Not until they had both reached the upper world..."

Gabrielle paused. She looked down at her audience. _'Okay... So far so good...'_ she thought a took a sip of water. There came no sound from the people who were sitting in front of the bard, eager to listen to the rest of the story.

"The two lovers walked and walked and while they were walking, Orpheus could not hear any movement behind him. The young man began to doubt that Eurydice was there, following him. He forced himself to move further and not to look back but his doubt grew bigger with each step he took. He started to think that Hades had deceived him and that there was no one there after all. Eager to find out the truth, Orpheus forgot the condition set by the gods and as soon as he reached the light of the upper world he turned around. Unfortunately, Eurydice hadn't made it to the upper world yet. As he turned, he gazed his wife's face only to see her vanish back into the underworld. But this time, it was for good..." Gabrielle's voice faded slowly, adding more drama to the story. She closed her eyes, trying to make Orpheus' hurt as vivid as possible. Nobody was talking. A small smile started forming on the bards lips when she heard a woman in the audience sniff.

"And what happened to Orpheus?" a voice came from the back of the room. Gabrielle raised her eyes to see Ambrosia smiling at her, waiting to hear the answer to her question.

"Yeah. What happened to Orpheus?" an other voice was heard.

"Well..." Gabrielle hadn't thought of that. In her head, the story ended when Eurydice disappeared in the underworld. It never occurred to her that Orpheus had to have his own ending as well. _'I'll just improvise.'_ she thought and started:

"After Eurydice's second and final death, Orpheus had nothing to live for. Nothing to expect from the future. He had forsworn the love of women and would only take young girls as his lovers. He even came to a point where he disdained the worship of all gods. Every single one of them, except the one of Apollo, the God of Light. One day, early in the morning, he went to the oracle of Dionysus at Mount Pangaion to salute his god at dawn by playing his lyre. The Ciconian women, the followers of Dionysus, started throwing sticks and stones at him as he played, for not honoring his previous patron, Dionysus. But his music was so beautiful that even sticks and stones refused to hit him. Enraged, the women tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies.

It is said that his head and lyre -still singing mournful songs- floated down the swift Hebrus to the Mediterranean shore. There, the winds and waves carried them on to the shore of the island of Lesbos. The inhabitants buried his head and built a shrine in his honour near Antissa. There, his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo himself.

As for the lyre, it was carried to heaven by the Muses, and was placed among the stars. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of Orpheus' body and buried them at Leibethra below Mount Olympus, where the nightingales sang over his grave. His bones were later taken to Dion by the Macedonians, after the river Sys flooded Leibertha. In the end, his soul returned to the underworld, where he was finally reunited with his beloved Eurydice and they spent together all eternity..." Gabrielle's voice faded once more, this time ending the story. _'That went better than expected.'_ she thought. Then, one by one the people sitting in front of her started standing up and clapping their hands. _'That went _so much_ better than expected!'_ the young bard stood and took a small bow while having a big smile on her face.

"Okay!" Gabrielle turned her head to the direction of the voice. Marianne had stood up as she spoke. "Surely this is more that enough for tonight. The girl needs to rest." she said looking at the young blonde standing next to her. "So why don't you all go home, get some rest yourselves?" Everyone started rising from their seats and walking out of the inn letting out small noises of discontent. Some of the people approached Gabrielle to tell her what an amazing bard she was. She hadn't heard so many compliments ever since she had gone to the 'Academy of Performing Bards' in Athens. She thanked everyone and informed them that she wouldn't be staying any longer at the village. That statement caused even more sounds of discontent from the people. That reaction made the young bard feel both happy and sad at the same time. Happy as she now knew that being a bard was what she was born to do and sad for the people who liked her and wouldn't have the chance to here more of her stories. But the truth was, she didn't have that many stories left. She had spent more that three hours narrating her adventures with Xena and even some of her personal experiences without the warrior and now she had pretty much nothing interesting left to narrate.

As the last people left the inn, there was one man left behind. No one seemed to have noticed him until Marianne saw him, sitting by himself practically hidden in the shadows.

"Excuse me, sir? Can I help you?" she asked and Gabrielle, who was now getting ready to go to her room, and Ambrosia turned to him. He was young. Not a lot older than Gabrielle. He had light hair and looked so innocent. Someone who people would trust right away. But there was something about him that wasn't very trustworthy. The man didn't answer to the innkeeper's question. Instead, he turned his gaze to Gabrielle and Ambrosia who were standing right next to each other. He slowly got up and walked towards them, right past Marianne without even giving her the slightest look. As he approached the two girls, he extended his arm to the young bard for a handshake. Gabrielle's heart skipped a bit as she was taken by surprise by the man's behavior. She took a really small step back before extending her own arm. The man shook hands with her tensely.

"I liked your stories." he said in a low voice.

"Um... Thank you... I guess..." answered Gabrielle and she felt the man's grip tightening.

"I _really_ liked your stories." The girls tried to pull her hand away only to feel the man's grip tightening even more. Suddenly, he leaned towards her as if he wanted to whisper something to her. Instead, he just stayed there, breathing next to her ear. It was a brief moment but for the bard it seemed like an eternity had passes before the innkeeper spoke up.

"Sir. Do you want something?" she asked, clearly irritated.

"As a matter of fact yes." said the man and turned to look Marianne straight in the eye. "I want a room." he stated, finally letting go of Gabrielle's hand. Marianne was taken aback by the man's statement.

"May I know your name please, sir?" she asked.

"It's Ennius." he said with a grin. Marianne wasn't very comfortable letting this weird man staying there. But it didn't matter how she felt. It was her job to give rooms to people who needed them. She did own an inn after all.

"Alright then. Please follow me. I will show to your room." she said hesitantly and she guided the man through the kitchen door and to the rooms. She was of course going to give him a room far away from Gabrielle's. That man was very strange and she didn't want him too close to the young bard, as he's shown special interest in her not too long ago.

"Who was that?" asked Ambrosia once Ennius and her mother were out of sight.

"I have no idea." answered Gabrielle. "But he sure gives me the creeps." she added.

"Ugh. Tell me about it." And with that, both girls went to their rooms to try and get at least some rest.

**A/N: please note that the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is not my own. I just borrowed it for the purposes of my fiction! you can read more about it here: wiki/Orpheus#Death_of_Eurydice and here: wiki/Eurydice :D also, since i'm going to London for a few days (as I mentioned earlier) i won't be able to write. therefore, i'm afraid there won't be an update for a couple of weeks. (i'm coming back on Monday but it'll take some time to think and write the next chapter..) anyways, thank for reading! plx review! :D  
****P.S.: so sorry for the extended author's notes!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: So there you have it! chapter 13 :D Please note that this chapter is entirely written by my sister. She made me promise than when (and if) I reached the 13th chapter, I'd let her write it cause that's her favourite number! :P (You should see her collection of theatre tickets -yes, we keep them. They are all seat no. 13 haha) needless to say that she actually changed the entire track of the story! she took it to a completely different direction from that I had in mind! oh well. that probably means that she'll have to write the next chapter as well. Until I get back on shape! :P anyways, I hope you like it! Don't forget to leve a review :D ~Enjoy~**

**Kamalackapacka: I'm so happy u liked the previous chapter! :) Gabby told the story? I'm afraid i have no recollection of that... damn! i remember the episode but i thought that she hadn't said the entire story... well... btw, the episode was based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. it's an ancient greek story :) P.S.: yeah. i got it that it's not _ur_ name but still. it's weird :P and may I add, i had an amazing time in London! thank you very much! haha :P**

**AlphaLuna87: New reviewer! *yay* hahah thank you for reviewing! I'm glad u like my story! hope you keep reading :)**

**13.**

It was quiet. Too quiet. No. It wasn't only quiet. It was extremely dark too. Xena looked around her and she realized that she couldn't see anything. Not even the moonlight, even though she knew there was supposed to be a full moon that night. And then it hit her. She was no longer outside. Her hands were now chained to a stone wall. The warrior couldn't help but wonder how she had gotten there and why her reflexes and senses were nowhere near as sharp as they would normally be. She needed far too long to adjust to the new environment and that was never a good sign. Just like the throbbing headache, the feeling of nausea and the memory gaps she had. Those things never were a good sign when experienced separately, let alone all together. After doing some thinking, Xena came to the conclusion that she had no recollection of the events that followed her encounter with Ennius. The last thing she could remember clearly was Ennius leaving her tied up outside and herself struggling to find a way to escape as soon as possible.

The warrior's thoughts drifted to Gabrielle. Where was she? What had she been doing? Ares' words had been somewhat comforting to her. _"Last time I saw her, she was quite alright. Pretty happy too."_ That's what he had told her and Xena wished she had at least the slightest idea where her friend was. She thanked the gods she was okay and hoped she would continue being that way. But knowing the young bard, being okay was never a state she could stick in. Sooner or later trouble would find Gabrielle and she would need help. Of course Xena prayed that it would be later rather than sooner.

Being consumed by her thoughts, the warrior didn't notice right away that her eyes had been adjusted to the darkness around her and she could now see better. Once she did, she turned her head, examining every little inch of the room she was in. It was small made entirely by stone. There was something that resembled a bed across from her, shoved up the corner of the cell, making the room seem even smaller. Next to the bed, Xena could see the cell door which was most likely made of iron or strong layers of wood. The warrior couldn't really tell, as there was no light in or -as a matter of fact- anywhere near her cell. The warrior turned her head upwards. There was a small window just above her. It was small enough so she could not fit through it if she managed to free herself from her bonds but big enough for a teeny bit of light to come through it. Several moments passed and nothing had changed. Not a sound was heard, not a movement was noticed, nothing. Suddenly, footsteps were heard and a dim light appeared through the darkness. Seconds later, Xena could hear talking and laughter, becoming louder and louder. Whoever they were, they were approaching her cell rather quickly. One of them must have had the keys cause the warrior could clearly hear them clinging as the two men came closer. Inches away from the cell door, the talking stopped and the two men turned to face the chained warrior. One of them was holding a candle, the source of the dim light. The other, was the keeper of the keys. He had a ring full of keys attached to his belt. If only Xena could get her hands on them. As the candle lit the men's faces, the warrior recognized Arminius as the one with the keys. A slight smile crept its way upon her lips but it was soon gone. Arminius and the other man -still unknown to the warrior- stood there with their hands holding the cell bars. For a moment, it seemed as if they were communicating with their thoughts, as they simultaneously tuned to face one an other and smiled mischievously.

"Xena." said Arminius as he turned to face her. "Don't you just love your cell? I believe that you were told that you'd be moved inside. Much worse, isn't it?" The tone the man was using made Xena want to knock him unconscious.

"That's all you can do?" she asked sarcastically.

"Oh come on, Xena. Don't be a buzz killer! Of course that's not the best we can do! But it'll do for now." said Arminius and grinned. "Anyway. We are leaving now. And- just so you know, we'll be right next to the door. So don't think to escape. It won't do you any good." And with that, the two men left. Xena could still see the light from the candle. That meant that they really were right next to the cell door. Not that she expected anything different.

* * *

Gods knew how much time had passed since Xena's little chat with Arminius, but it seemed like endless candlemarks to the warrior.

"Hey! Hey Princess!" Xena had just started drifting off when a familiar voice woke her from her slumber. She opened her eyes and looked around alerted. "It's just me." said the voice and the warrior immediately recognized Arminius. He was holding the candle close to his face and he had a conspiratorial smile on his face.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I thought that maybe you needed some help. You don't seem to be handling things too well." he replied and showed her the keys.

"Tell me one good reason I should trust you." said the warrior and eyed him suspiciously.

"Well. For one, you don't really have a choice. You see, I have the upper hand now, Xena."

"And what do you want in return?" she asked him and his smile grew bigger.

"I want you to take me with you." he simply said.

"What?"

"You heard me. If I let you out, I'm coming with."

"That's not gonna happen." replied Xena, earning a surprised look from Arminius.

"And why not?" he asked.

"Because you are the enemy. And I never cooperate with my enemies."

"Oh really?" It was the third time Xena wanted to punch that guy in the face.

"Anymore." she answered.

"You disappoint me, Xena. I thought you wouldn't refuse such a tempting offer. I mean, come on. You know you won't be able to leave this place by yourself. You'll need help. And I'm here to help you." Xena hesitated. She was still unsure whether she could trust Arminius or not. She hated to admit but he actually had a point. Of course, she would be able to escape, but not soon enough in order to go to find Gabrielle, who was or most likely would soon be in some kind of trouble.

"Why do you want to come with me?" she asked. Arminius sighted.

"Couple of reasons really. Firstly, I'd hate to be around when they discover that you are gone."

"Yes. But by leaving, you'll definitely make them come after you. Since you have the keys, you'll be the first person they'll suspect ."

"No. You see, I've got everything figured out. I'm gonna let you out and then, we are going to break the chains and the lock. That way, it'll look like you escaped. We'll even splatter some blood around. Make it seem like there was a fight."

"Blood?"

"Yeah!"

"Where are you going to find blood?"

"What do you think Nicodemus' part will be?"

"Nicodemus...?"

"He's the man who was with me earlier. He's sleeping in the next cell."

"Oh he's _sleeping_..."

"Okay... I may have drugged him."

"I don't get you Arminius..."

"What don't you get? The plan is simple! I let you out, kill Nicodemus, stage a fight and we get out."

"Okay. You let me out and we leave. Together. But nobody dies."

"But then they'll be after us right away!"

"They'll be after us anyway. Killing a man won't stop them. I'm not doing it."

"But-"

"Not but. It's either _my_ way, or _no_ way!" Xena was obviously determined to have it her way. Arminius muttered a slightly forced 'Your way.' and the warrior added: "Now are you going to unlock the door or not? And get me a piece of parchment and a quill."

"What do you want them for?"

"To make sure you won't be killed if we get captured." she said while rubbing her newly freed wrists.

* * *

"Okay. Where to now?" asked Arminius when they exited the jail.

"The forest. We'll make them lose our tracks there. Now run!"

**A/N: Again. Thank you for reading! Plz review! and remember! this chapter was written by my sister so any complains go to her! haha :P**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: an other chappie! :) and this one is entirely me! my sister had nothing to do with it! (and I think I'm gonna keep it that way :P ) This just *has* to be my longest yet! I stayed up all night yesterday writing it! i guess I got too engrossed and I couldn't stop haha anyways, i hope you like it :)  
Thanks for favouriting me and my story and for adding it (and me) to your alerts! makes my happy :D ~Enjoy~ and don't forget to review!**

**Kamalackapacka: once again, thank you for reviewing! :) i told my sister that you liked her chapter and she says thank you :P as you noticed, my sister is a bit more to the funny side than i am. while writing of course! i know it's my story and everything but she made me promise to let her write it.. I couldn't break my promise :P but -by the gods- this was the one and only time she messes with it! now i have to find what to do with Xena and Arminius! :P**

**14****.**

Xena and Arminius ran and ran for a long time, until even they didn't know where they were. Of course, for someone like Xena it wouldn't be difficult to find her way but she preferred being ''lost'', at least until she was sure they weren't being chased any more.

"Hey." she suddenly said, putting a hand to Arminius chest to stop him from running. "Do you smell burning?" she asked. Arminius stopped and sniffed the air.

"The bastard did it..." he whispered.

"Who did what?" asked Xena.

"I never thought he would go through with it." he continued talking mostly to himself.

"Who did what?" asked Xena again this time louder, grabbing him from his shirt and shaking him. Arminius could see the desperation in the warriors eyes, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

"Ennius is going through with the plan." he simply said, but that wasn't all he had to say.

* * *

Gabrielle was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She knew she had to have an early start the next day just as well as she knew that she was _not_ a morning person. That of course meant that she had to get as much sleep as possible.

Not even three candlemarks had passed when the bard's eyes flew open. Gabrielle looked around, not knowing why she had woken up so suddenly. She was sure it wasn't due to a nightmare or anything, cause if it was, she would be all sweaty and breathing heavily. No. It wasn't a dream. The bard looked out the window. It was still dark outside and probably would be that way for at least an other four or even five candlemarks. Gabrielle sighed and closed her eyes, convinced that finding out what woke her up was of little importance and could wait until the morning. Little did she know the reason of her awakening was really, _really_ important.

Not longer than five minutes later, Gabrielle woke up again. But this time, she knew exactly why. Her room was filled with smoke and she could hardly breathe. She jolted out of the bed and ran to the door. She tried opening it but the doorknob was extremely hot and she couldn't get a good grip on it without burning her hands. The bard started panicking. She knew that the source of the fire wasn't inside her room, as she couldn't see any flames, but she was sure it had to be somewhere close. Suddenly, she heard running and then someone knocked on her door.

"Gabrielle?" It was Ambrosia. Her voice shaky and filled with panic. "Gabrielle are you in there?" yelled the girl.

"Ambrosia? Yes, I'm in here! The doorknob it too hot! I can't open the door!" the bard yelled back. Ambrosia put a wet cloth on the doorknob and turned it.

"Oh my gods!" she said.

"What? What is it?" asked Gabrielle whose breathing had become labored and she had started coughing.

"Gabrielle the door is locked!"

"What?" the bard's eyes widened. That couldn't be good. "Are- Are you sure? Did you turn the doorknob fully?" She couldn't believe that something like that was happening.

"Yes! Any further and I'll rip it out the door! I'm telling you, the door is locked!"

"Okay!" said Gabrielle. "Okay... Here's what we're going to do. You get out of here, as fast as you can. Okay? And- And try to go crawling! Not running. Smoke always rises up and it will be harder for you to breathe!" yelled the bard.

"I'm not leaving you here!"

"Ambrosia! Do as I say! I'll be out in a minute!" yelled Gabrielle. "Hopefully..." she whispered.

"I can go find the key! Gabrielle, please! I don't want to leave without you!"

"Don't make this harder that it already is!" she yelled, grabbing her staff which was propped against the wall. "Go get your mother and get out!"

"Fine! But if you're not out in -and I quote- "a minute", I'm coming back inside!" yelled Ambrosia and Gabrielle heard her footsteps running away.

"I said crawling! Not running!" yelled the bard. _'Stubborn. Stubborn girl...'_ she thought as she tried to look around the room which was now filled with smoke. Gabrielle could actually feel it going in her lungs as she struggled to breathe. The bard stayed as close to the ground as possible, but that didn't seem to help her situation. She had to find a way out of there quickly or else she was certain she would not make it.

The young bard started panicking even more. The smoke had become unbearable and she couldn't stop coughing as she strained to get to the window.

"Okay. Bad things definitely _do_ come in threes..." she soliloquized when she realized that the window wouldn't open either. Gabrielle looked around frantically for something heavy enough to break the window with. A wide smile appeared on the bard's lips when she saw a stool sitting by the bed. She grabbed it and threw it with all her might on the window, shattering it.

"And that's how you do it." she said to herself while grabbing her staff off the floor, where she had left it and climbing up the window. The bard took a deep breath of fresh air as soon as her feet hit the ground. She couldn't help but smile to herself. _'Xena would be proud.'_ she thought and ran to the front side of the inn.

As soon as she got there, she stopped dead on her tracks. The whole village was on fire. The few people that still lived there were trying their best to save their properties and themselves. Men, women and even children were fighting against the flames that were consuming their houses. Some women had gathered most of the young ones to the center of the village where there were no houses or plantations in an attempt to save them. It was like all hell had broken loose. Gabrielle could hear the people screaming and crying but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Not that this was something that she should bother herself with at a time like this.

"Ambrosia!" yelled the bard but got no response. "Ambrosia where are you?" she yelled again but without getting an answer. "Oh my gods..." she whispered. As Gabrielle turned around, she bumped into an old man, trying to carry a what seemed to be very heavy bucket of water.

"Oh. I'm sorry." she said picking the bucket up. "Here. Let me help." she continued and went to the water pump to refill the bucket. "Hey. Have you seen the owner of this inn? Or her daughter?" she asked while pumping the water.

"I saw the young one. She was there not more than five minutes ago." said the man and pointed to the front door of the inn. "Marianne on the other hand, I haven't seen..." he added and took the now full bucket from Gabrielle.

"Are you sure you don't need help with that?" she asked and the man reassured her that he was fine. "Okay then." said the bard. "Gotta find Marianne and Ambrosia." she added and ran towards the inn.

"Ambrosia!" she yelled and this time she got an answer.

"Gabrielle? Gabrielle in here!" the voice came from inside the inn and Gabrielle's heart skipped a beat. What was Ambrosia doing in there? It didn't take long for the bard to decide what to do. Without thinking about it she ran inside and to the direction of the voice.

"Ambrosia where are you?" she yelled one more time."

"I'm here, Gabrielle!"

Gabrielle started making out a slim figure standing next to a closed door, trying to unlock it.

"Ambrosia what are you doing? I thought I told you to get out of here!"

"I did! But mother hadn't come out yet so I had to come back inside!" answered the girl.

"Is this your mother's room?"

"Yes." she replied and coughed.

"Okay. Listen to me. Go outside. I'll bring your mother out." said Gabrielle moving Ambrosia away from the door.

"No. I'm not leaving you again!"

"Hey. I got out last time, didn't I? Now go outside and help the others! The whole village is on fire!" said the bard pushing the younger girl away lightly.

"Just be careful..." said Ambrosia and left running.

As soon as Gabrielle was alone, she started banging on Marianne's door. Her fear started to rise when she got no answer.

"Marianne! Marianne can you hear me?" she yelled but there still was no reply. The young bard grabbed her staff firmly and started hitting the door with it. After several attempts, she managed to break the lock and the door sprang open. An enormous cloud of smoke made its way out of the room making Gabrielle cough harder than before. When the room cleared up a bit, the bard walked inside looking around.

"Marianne?" she said in a low voice. No answer. As Gabrielle was searching for any movement, a noise was heard from across the room. The young bard set her gaze on a tangle on the floor. She ran towards it and immediately recognized Marianne. The poor woman could barely breathe and she couldn't talk because of all the smoke she had inhaled.

"Oh no! No, no, no..." the bard soliloquized as she knelt beside the innkeeper, taking her head on her lap. "Marianne look at me. You are going to be fine." she said, partly trying to convince herself as well. "I'm gonna get you out of here." she continued and stood up slowly. "You think you can walk a bit?" she asked, although she already knew the answer. Marianne nodded 'no' with her head and Gabrielle picked her up, using all the energy she had left.

"A bit more..." said the bard to herself when she finally managed to carry Marianne out of her room. "Just a bit more and we'll be out of here." she kept saying in an attempt to gain more strength. A few minutes later, Gabrielle was laying the innkeeper on the ground and was collapsing next to her. The young bard took some deep breaths of fresh air and started coming round. Moments later, there was no dizziness and no blurry vision to distract her from what she had to do. Gabrielle took a look around. She spotted Ambrosia not too far away from her helping some villagers put out the fire on a man's house. She was giving out orders and she seemed to be completely in her element doing so. _'Like father like daughter.'_ thought the bard before kneeling next to a now barely breathing Marianne.

"Come on! Come on, Marianne!" cried Gabrielle as she unsuccessfully tried to wake Marianne up. "Come on, breathe Marianne! Breathe!" she yelled, as if the louder she yelled the more possible it would be for the innkeeper to wake up. But unfortunately that wasn't the case. No matter how loud Gabrielle yelled, Marianne seemed to be slipping away faster and faster, each time one step closer to the Elysian Fields, because for the young bard, Marianne was a true hero.

It was like everything ceased for the bard. There were no screams and no cries, nor was the fire, burning the village to the ground, audible anymore. It was just her and Marianne. A woman she hardly knew but for a reason felt so close to. She knew Marianne wouldn't make it. She had been in there for too long. Nobody could survive that. Not even Xena. _'Xena...'_ Gabrielle's mind drifted away. _'Where are you Xena?' _All Gabrielle wanted at that moment was to be with Xena. But she wasn't there. And only gods knew where she was.

"Gabrielle!" the bard took a sharp breath and blinked a couple of times. She looked around and soon locate the source of the voice. A very worried Ambrosia was running towards her, tears steaming down her face. "Gabrielle what happened?" she asked crying after seeing her mothers lifeless body on the bard's lap.

"Ambrosia..." whispered Gabrielle, not knowing what else to say. "I- I'm..."

"What happened?" asked the girl again, this time grittier, blinking away a new wave of tears.

"Ambrosia I'm so sorry... Mar- Your mother, she was in there for too long... I- I couldn't save her... I'm so sorry..." Gabrielle kept blinking away some tears of her own. "If I had got to you faster... Then maybe... Maybe she would still be alive..." Ambrosia sat there, her face empty of emotions.

"Don't blame yourself, Gabrielle..." she said quietly, this time letting the tears flow down her cheeks. "I should have never left you there by yourself... It's all my fault..."

"No. Ambrosia look at me." said the bard and raised the girl's head so that she could look her in the eyes. "Don't do that... Don't blame yourself for something that was beyond anyone's control... It is the Fates that decide who lives and who dies. And you can't change that... You can only honor the memory of those who have passed and hope to see them again some day... And you _will_ see your mother again, Ambrosia. I know it. So don't convince yourself that your mother's death was your fault. Cause it wasn't. Okay?"

As Gabrielle kept talking, she couldn't help but think what she would do if instead of Marianne, it was her own mother lying there dead. Or Xena. Would she not blame herself for their deaths? Would she not be angry at herself for not being there on time? For not helping them? The bard knew that she would. She would most definitely blame herself. Just like Xena blamed her own self for everything, even if there was no way to prevent the inevitable. But she couldn't let Ambrosia do that. She couldn't -and wouldn't- let her grow up believing that her mother's death was her fault.

"I could have stayed in there and help you out!" said Ambrosia, breaking the eye contact and turning her head away. "What if you were dead too? You know you could have died. What if you were trapped in there? I could have lost you too!"

"Stop it, please..." said Gabrielle, who didn't have the energy to argue with Ambrosia.

"In fact. I don't think you should be in there at all! I'm a god, remember? There was no way for me to die! Oh gods..."

"Ambrosia! I'm going to say this one last time. It was _not_ your fault, there was _nothing_ you could do to about it. And look around you! Do you have any idea how much you helped these people? I saw you earlier, shouting orders at them and I saw a leader in you. I'm sure you were born for great things, Ambrosia. Don't ruin it..." Gabrielle gave a smile to the girl, trying to cheer her the least bit up, and wiped a tear with her thumb. Much to her relief, Ambrosia smiled back. That meant that the bard's words actually meant something to her.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Ambrosia.

"I'm going to stay here until your mother gets a decent burial and I make sure that everyone's fine. Then, I'll head off to- gods know where..."

"Okay..." said the girl. "We're going to bury Mother and anyone else who might have died in the morning..." she whispered as she got up and walked to the center of the village where a small square was located. The fire was now under control and most of the people had gathered there. Some were crying while others had no tears left to shed. A few had managed to save some of their valuables from the flames but most of them had lost everything. It was gonna be hard for everyone.

As Gabrielle was still sitting on the ground, with Marianne's head on her lap, a thought appeared in her mind making her freeze. _'Argo...'_

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Plz review :D**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hey everyone! This is one of the rare (for me at least) quick updates! :P With my parents and siblings away for the week, I have pretty much nothing to do so I just sit and write every day! haha So. I hope you like this chapter :) I know that the previous one was kinda sad but I was in a weird mood when I wrote it and I always put my feelings in whatever I write. I think this one is kinda sad too. but not as much as the last one! :P Anyways, enough of this! Let's proceed with the story! Oh and -as always- don't forget to leave a review! i love reviews! reviews make me happy! lol**

**FallenAngelXWP: hey! thanks for reviewing! :) glad you like the chapter! hope you enjoy this one too. don't worry. i don't think i'm gonna kill Argo.. I like her too much haha  
**

**Kamalackapacka: hi! glad you liked it! i think it turned out quite good myself :P it was a bit sad cause -as i said- I was a bit off.. plus, I was listening to the Amelie soundtrack while writing it and it always gets to me... oh well.. and don't worry about the length of your reviews! i love getting them, no matter how long :P  
**

**15.**

Gabrielle raced to the stables. There was smoke everywhere and her fear grew bigger and bigger. The young bard knew she couldn't run anymore, she could feel the tiredness overwhelming her. But she couldn't stop now. Not now... When she reached the door she stopped for a brief moment to catch her breath. Her sides hurt, she was dizzy and felt like passing out but she wouldn't let anything stop her. Not until she was sure that Argo was fine. It took quite a bit of strength for the bard to move the big piece of wood that held the door closed and locked. As Gabrielle looked inside, her hand rose to her mouth and her eyes widened.

"Gabrielle!" It was Ambrosia. "I saw you running to the stables. Is everything okay?" she asked

"Argo..." whispered the bard and turned to look the younger girl, tears steaming down her cheeks.

"Oh my gods... Is she... Is Argo...?" The girl was at a lost for words. That couldn't be happening. Gabrielle pointed through the opened door and as Ambrosia turned her head to the direction, a wide smile appeared on her lips. The bard was showing her a huge hole on the wall. It was big enough for a horse to fit through it. And Argo was nowhere to be seen.

"She's okay!" said Gabrielle and laughed. Tears were still running down her face, but they were happy ones. "Thank the gods, she's okay!" she said as she wiped the tears away.

"She got out! That's amazing!" exclaimed Ambrosia.

"Well. It is Xena's horse after all!" said the bard and laughed once more. Despite all that had happened, she couldn't help but feel at least a bit happy.

Gabrielle felt Ambrosia's head resting on her shoulder and her hand rose automatically and caressed the girl's hair. The two girls barely knew each other but the connection that had formed between them was obvious. After a few moments, Ambrosia rose her head from the bard's shoulder and sighed.

"So," she said looking at Gabrielle, "I better get back. See if I can help with anything."

"Okay. I think I'll stay a bit longer. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah. Sure." said the girl and turned to leave.

"Hey Ambrosia!" called the bard making her turn around. "Be careful, okay?"

"Aren't I always?" she asked with a chuckle.

"You've been so strong through this all."

"I think it hasn't really hit me yet..." she whispered and added: "See you later. Don't spend too long out here."

"I won't." said the bard and walked into the now destroyed stable. _'As if these people hadn't already been through enough...'_ she thought sadly.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

"What did he do? What was the plan?" Xena's first thought was _'Gabrielle!'_. She knew that her friend could be anywhere -or maybe she could be anywhere, given she was the one taken- but she somehow knew that the bard was close. Too close. It was like she could feel her. Feel her panic, her distress, her sorrow. Yes. She was very close.

"Well... It was so much of a plan as it was a dare..." said Arminius hesitantly making the warrior raise an eyebrow. "You see, Ennius is the newest member. Pausanias found him wandering around the woods not too long ago. He was saying how his wife was killed and he was left for dead. By the way, if you ask me, he's way too young to have a wife, not that it bothers me or anything. Just sayin'. So anyway, Pausanias found him and recruited him. He told him that if he joined us, he could avenged his wife's early death. He came right away. Stupid man... he spent weeks training. I can say he was a natural with the sword. He could bit most of our soldiers within days. Pausanias was pretty impressed, so he told him that he would appoint him his first ''mission''. Set fire to the local village. If he could do that, that would mean that he is ready to join us for good. Ennius didn't want to do it. He was thinking about the innocent people that would lose their lives and everything."

"So why did he do it?" Xena cut in.

"I might have something to do with that... I told him that he was a coward and that he would never be able to take revenge for his wife's death. That really annoyed him. I knew he had it in him, but I never thought he'd actually do it..."

"Which village is it?" asked Xena, hoping that the answer would be something different than-

"Beroea." said Arminius.

_'Oh that's just great!'_ thought Xena. The camp site she and Gabrielle had set up three days ago was very close to Beroea and Xena was more than certain the young bard would be there.

"That's where we're going." said the warrior.

"What?"

"Are you deaf?" she asked in her usual tone, the one she always used when she was irritated.

"It's too far away. By the time we're there, it'll be destroyed by the fire." said Arminius, ignoring Xena's tone.

"If you start walking now, we'll be there by midday tomorrow!" yelled Xena who was already a good ten to fifteen steps ahead of the man.

"Hey! Wait up!" he yelled and caught up with her with a quick jog. "Why do you even wanna go there? It's not like you know the people. Right?" he asked.

"Okay. First of all, I don't have to know them in order to help them. That's not how it works."

"And second of all?"

"And second of all, I may or may not know some of them. What's it to you anyway?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering. You seem pretty eager to get there so..."

"I feel it's time that we established some ground rules. I mind my business, you mind your own. Got it? And also, just cause you came along, it doesn't mean that we are buddies. There will not be any ''teach me how to fight'' moments. In fact, there will be no moments at all. Is that clear?"

"I know perfectly well how to fight, thank you very much. And who said I want to be your buddy?" asked Arminius, ignoring Xena's "I doubt that." to his statement that he knew perfectly well how to fight. Xena didn't answer. Instead she just sighed and picked up her pace, making Arminius fall a bit behind.

"You are not much for chitchat, are you?" he asked when reached her. "Fine." he breathed when he didn't get an answer.

Candlemarks and candlemarks passed and they were still walking. The sun had begun to rise and the exhaustion was evident on both their faces.

"The sun's coming up." noted Arminius.

"I noticed." said Xena indifferently.

"You think we'll be there soon? I'm gettin' a little hungry."

"I told you. We'll be there by noon." said the warrior and sped up a bit. "But not if you keep walking like that!" she said with a smirk.

"Yeah well. I'm still hungry."

"You should have thought of that earlier. You may not have noticed, but we have nothing. No food, no money... I don't even have clothes." she said. "Except of course this wonderful tatter you so kindly offered." she continued mockingly.

"Since we have no money, don't hope to get new clothes, Princess." Xena hated when people called her ''Princess''.

"I don't want new clothes. I want _my_ clothes. And I have a feeling I'll find them in Beroea..." she mumbled.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

"Hey." said Gabrielle and walked slowly to Ambrosia who was sitting on the floor of the burned down inn. "How are you holding up?" she asked and sat down next to her.

"Surprisingly good actually." answered Ambrosia and gave the bard a weak smile.

"Have you slept at all?"

"Like I can..."

"You should at least try to get some rest. I'll take care of everything." Gabrielle knew that what she was saying was completely unreasonable. How could anyone sleep after what had happened? But she had to try to act relatively normal. She thought that that might ease Ambrosia's pain. She was strong. No doubt about that. But she was just a child. How much could she take after all?... _'Just a child.'_ Gabrielle laughed internally at her own thought. Of course Ambrosia wasn't ''just a child'', but the young bard felt the need to protect her, to take care of her, to love her... The young bard had already decided that she would take Ambrosia with her. The road was a dangerous place, a very dangerous place, but they could both use some company. Especially Ambrosia, after loosing her mother and home, all in a blink of an eye. Gabrielle debated with herself on whether to tell her or wait for the girl to suggest it. As much as she wanted her along, she wouldn't like to force her into anything.

Lost in her thoughts, Gabrielle didn't even notice that Ambrosia had left. The girl was now outside. Kneeling next to her mothers body, holding her cold hands. She wasn't crying. She was talking to Marianne. As if she was still alive. She told her how she wanted to go with Gabrielle, but she was sure she wouldn't let her because of the danger. She told her how much she was already missing her and how she would never forget her. How she would always honor her and love her and think about her.

"One is never really dead, until one is forgotten." Marianne used to say and for Ambrosia, her Mother would never die because she would never be forgotten. Ambrosia took a deep breath and rose, blinking back some tears. The girl caressed her Mother's cheek and walked away slowly. She wasn't walking for long when she heard banging coming out of the relatively intact workshop. She walked inside, curiosity taking the best of her. She saw Gabrielle holding a hammer and a chisel, carving something on a clay urn.

"Hey." said the bard without turning around.

"How did you know I was here?" asked Ambrosia.

"Too much time spent with Xena does that to you." half-joked the bard.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought that, if you don't mind of course, we could build a funeral fire for your Mother. I found this urn to put her ashes in. That way you can always have her with you. It would be a bit creepy if you carry her around all the time, but still-" Gabrielle tried to keep the conversation pleasant, despite the seriousness of the subject in discussion. Ambrosia smiled and nodded.

"I think that's a wonderful idea." she said and continued: "Now back to my question. What are you doing?"

"I thought I'd carve some words on the urn. Come see." Ambrosia approached and Gabrielle handed her the urn.

"Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone." she read, running her fingers over the carvings.

"It's what my Mother always says. I think it's a nice saying." said the bard.

"It's beautiful..." said Ambrosia, tears shining in her eyes but not falling. Gabrielle smiled faintly and got up.

"I think it's time." she said putting her hand on Ambrosia's shoulder. The girl agreed and the two walked outside to prepare the funeral fire.

* * *

Ambrosia and Gabrielle were standing silently along with the other villagers. The fire was burning in front of them, its smoke rising to the sky. For several minutes, nobody talked. Each mourned their own dead. When everybody left, only Gabrielle and Ambrosia were left to the sight. The bard slowly approached the funeral fire and a few minutes later she returned next to Ambrosia with a now full urn. She gave it to the girl who took it with shaky hands.

"Thank you..." she whispered as the bard hugged her tightly.

"So." said the bard and took a small step back. "I better get going..." she avoided eye contact with Ambrosia. "What you gonna do now?" she asked the girl. Ambrosia hesitated. She really did want to go with Gabrielle but she didn't know if the bard would want something like that.

"I don't know..." she said. "I guess I'll stay here. Help the people out a bit..." Gabrielle still hadn't decided if she should ask Ambrosia to come along. _'If she wants to stay, I'm not going to force her to do otherwise.'_ thought the bard.

"Okay..." said the young bard and gave Ambrosia another hug. "I'm gonna miss you." she whispered in the girl's ear.

"I'll miss you too." she replied. "You better go. You have a horse to find too." she added.

"Right. Right..." said the bard and took her staff. "I'm gonna visit you soon." she said and she walked away. '_I should tell her.' _she thought._ 'But what if she doesn't want to come? I guess I don't have anything to lose by asking... Yeah. I'll just ask her.'_

"Hey Ambrosia!" yelled the bard and turned around only to realize that the young girl was gone. Gabrielle sighed and kept walking towards the forest. _'So, a lonely journey it is...'_

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :D I'd like to say that the quote Gabrielle used "Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone." was originally said by Mitch Albom and I'm just borrowing it! :) That said, please review! :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: heey! it's me again! :) sorry for the late update but I was kinda ''museless'' for the last week or something and I had a pretty hard time finding a decent way to keep going with the story... I don't feel like this chapter is one of my best but I really tried! :P anyways, I hope you still enjoy it! Please review and let me know what you think!**

**~Guest: Thank you for reading and reviewing my story! :) To answer your question, Gabrielle's main secret was the story narrated in chapter 2. There probably will be more though... I have no idea! :P  
~Kamalackapacka: thank you! I love it that you review all my chapters! :P Yeah I know it was a bit sad but that was the only way I could find to go on with Gabrielle's story. And about Xena, I'm very glad you like her! sometimes I feel like she's a bit out of character, you know... She's not the hero (meaning main protagonist) in my story so I'm having trouble keeping her in character.. :P  
P.S.: I have absolutely NO idea how long it's going to be! I usually write what comes to mind -with very few exceptions- so I don't even know what's gonna happen in the next chapter, let along how long the story is gonna be! lol but I think it still has a long way to go. How long? We'll see... :P**

**16.**

Xena looked around as she entered the once familiar village, with Arminius was following her close behind. There was a destroyed sign on her right that read "Welcome in Beroea" in Greek. The warrior felt a knot in her stomach. She walked slowly through the main gates and looked around her. Apart from a couple buildings, the whole place was burned to the ground.

_~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.__**Flashback (almost six summers ago) **__.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~_

"_I want everything destroyed! Every house, every inn, every single building! I want them gone! Gone! You hear?"_

_The warrior woman shouted with all her might. The once peaceful village was now being consumed by the hungry flames. And she enjoyed it. She enjoyed it almost as much as fighting. It wasn't a rare time when she believed that she took more pleasure in fighting and consequently killing, than she did in discovering new, uncharted lands. She liked conquering new places, no denying that, but as time went by, she preferred the process of doing so rather than the outcome._

_She wasn't always like that. There was a time when she was innocent and naive. It may had been brief but it was there. It all changed after her brother's death during Cortese's attack to Amphipolis. Both she and her brother, Lyceus were trying to defend the village when it happened. Xena never saw it coming. All she knew was that she heard her brother calling her name right before he fell to the ground, with an arrow sticking out his chest. She blamed herself for his death. Always had and always would. If only she'd been there for him. If only she had protected him. He was young. He knew how to fight but he wasn't ready for a battle like that. His enthusiasm was what betrayed him. Thinking that he could do anything, that he was invincible, he just threw himself in the fight without caring what the outcome would be. But Xena wasn't the only one blaming herself for this tragic death. Her mother, Cyrene, did the same. Believing her daughter was responsible for the loss of Lyceus, Cyrene banished Xena from Amphipolis for ever. Whatever purity was left inside the young warrior was gone. She swore to avenge her brother's death, no matter what. Little did she know that there is always a thin line between avenging and taking revenge. And it was a matter of time for Xena to cross that line. _

_Soon enough, she stopped trying to avenge Lyceus' death and started harming people 'just for the hell of it' -as she had sometimes said. Fighting was becoming more and more fun and before she knew it, she had turned into the Conqueror and the Destroyer of Nations._

_~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~__**End Of Flashback**__.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~._

"Xena. Xena snap out of it!" Xena felt a hand pushing her shoulder and she blinked a couple of times, returning to the present. "You never answered my question." said Arminius.

"What question?"

"Do you know this place or not?"

"I did... Before the fire..." answered Xena and walked through what seemed to had once been Beroea's main gate.

There were people everywhere. _'That's good.'_ thought the warrior. _'Not a lot of them were killed.' _Most of them were trying to repair the minor damages or rebuild what had been completely destroyed. Some, mostly the younger girls, were in charge of taking care of the children. They had gathered them all together and they were telling them stories or playing games, so that they wouldn't distract the ones working. Xena knew that if Gabrielle was there, she would be the first one to tell a story. So the warrior walked towards the girls in hopes she would find her friend there, sitting on the ground, probably holding one of the children in her lap and being engrossed in narrating a tale. But Xena knew deep down that that was not the case. And when she got close enough to see the people there, she saw her hopes being shattered. Gabrielle was nowhere around. The warrior didn't know what it was between her and the young bard, but every time one of them was close by or in some kind of trouble, the other one could feel it. They always had this strange feeling that tells you that something bad is about to happen. And at that moment, Xena felt nothing. Not even the slightest of chills. Nothing. _'I guess that's a good thing...'_ she thought as she kept walking around the village, trying to decide whether she should stay and help out or not.

"Excuse me, miss. Can I help you?" Xena turned around sharply to see one of the elders standing there with an investigative look on his face.

"Yes." replied the warrior after a brief moment of thought. "I'm looking for my friend. I think she might have stayed here for a day or two. Young, blonde girl. Pretty short. Carries a staff with her..."

"Does she tell stories?" asked the old man with a shaky voice.

"Yes." said Xena and her eyes lit up. "You know her?" she added.

"Indeed I do." said the man. "She told us some wonderful stories the other night." he continued, mostly taking to himself rather than Xena. "I take it you are the infamous Xena, she's been talking about." Xena didn't respond right away, not knowing if she could trust the old man just yet.

"Yes. I _am_ Xena." she said after a moment of thinking. "Listen. Do you know where my friend is?"

"I'm afraid I can't help you, dear... I know she had been staying at Marianne's inn but when the fire started, it was every man for himself. You know?"

"Where's Marianne?" asked the warrior.

"Um... Unfortunately, Marianne died during the fire..." answered the man.

"Oh- I'm-" said Xena but he was interrupted.

"She was a good woman..." the old man said and continued: "I keep thinking of her daughter... Poor thing grew up without a father and now she lost her mother... Nobody should to go through all this..."

"Where is the girl?" asked Xena in a low voice, not knowing what to say about he innkeeper's death.

"Last time I saw her, she was walking inside the inn. Haven't seen her since." replied the old man and pointed behind Xena before the warrior could ask where the inn was located.

"Okay. Thank you." she said as she turned around to see the building. "And if you ever need anything, just ask me. Okay?" she added placing her hand on the old man's shoulder.

"Of course. Thank you, dear." And at that, the warrior walked away, letting the old man keep doing whatever it was he was doing.

"Arminius." called Xena but got no immediate answer as the man was absorbed in a story that was being told by one of the girls. "Arminius listen to me. I want you to help out these people any way you can. Okay? Even if it's of little importance to you, I want you to do whatever they ask you to. I want them to feel that they can trust you, even if it's for a glass of water. Okay?"

"Why? Where are you going to be?" asked Arminius, paying more attention to the story rather than to Xena.

"Hey." said the warrior and turned him around grabbing him by his shoulder. "It's not time for stories now. I'm going to look for my friend. Remember?" Little did he know that Xena was planning on leaving him there and continue the journey by herself. She knew that the enemies would find him faster but he wouldn't be in any trouble. Not after the not she had written when they left the prison.

"You are not going to leave me here, are you?" asked Arminius and eyed the warrior suspiciously.

"What?" she asked and added hastily: "No. Of course not. I'm just going to look for someone who can help me find my friend. I'll meet you in a while."

"Okay... But listen. I don't want to stick around for too long... I mean they have probably notice that we are both gone so I bet that this is the first place they'll look for us. And I don't want to be around when this happens."

"You won't. Trust me." said Xena. "So. I'll meet you in a bit. Okay?" And as Xena started walking towards the inn, Arminius approached the working villagers, not particularly excited about helping them.

-_**Elsewhere (earlier)**_-

Ambrosia followed Gabrielle for what seemed to her to be endless candlemarks. She made sure she would always stay about a stadia or so behind the bard. Never closer and never further. She almost got caught a couple of times because of something stupid like stepping on a branch or dry leaves or losing her footing, but luckily that never happened.

While they were walking, the girl couldn't help but wonder where Gabrielle found the energy to walk for candlemarks after candlemarks, stopping only to tie her boot laces or drink some water. Ambrosia, not being used to walking so much, could really use some rest. A nap sounded like a terrific idea to her.

Ambrosia made sure that Gabrielle never left her range of vision and from time to time, the girl noticed that the small bard would look around her, calling Argo's name. Finding Xena's horse was just as important to her as finding Xena herself. Once or twice, Ambrosia thought she heard Gabrielle yelling Xena's name, but she wasn't certain.

Several candlemarks had gone by, by the time Gabrielle decided that she was too hungry to keep walking and she should stop and eat something. By then, Ambrosia was already exhausted, her breathing had become heavier and she could feel her entire body hurting. The only thing she was sure of, was that she could not walk any more. Not without resting the least bit.

Having lost all sense of time, the girl could only hope that nightfall was near, as that would mean that Gabrielle would have to set up camp eventually. But unfortunately for her, nighttime was still candlemarks away.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Xena walked inside the inn cautiously._ 'This place must have been gorgeous.'_ she thought as she slowly made her away to the kitchen and then through a door that she guessed would lead to the rooms. It was an inn after all.

As she walked over some fallen tables and chairs, she help but sigh. _'By the gods...'_ she thought and pushed slightly the half-fallen kitchen door. The warrior was right. That door did lead to the rooms.

Xena saw several doors, all wide open but one. And something inside her told her that this was Gabrielle's door. So the choice of which room she would check out first was made easily. She carefully approached the closed door and turned the doorknob. She sighed when she realized that the door was locked. The warrior took a few steps back and kicked the locked door so hard, it banged open. Xena walked inside the room, looking around, trying to take in every little detail.

There was a bed, a closet and a desk all of them quite large. The bed was burned down but one could see that it was no made. A sign that someone had slept there. On the desk, Xena noticed a piece of half-burned parchment. As she moved closer, she immediately recognized Gabrielle's handwriting on it. She picked it up carefully. Like she was holding a baby bird that had fallen off its nest. She folded it even more carefully and placed it in the inside of her breastplate. She would read it later. After taking the parchment, the warrior looked around yet an other time. She noticed that the room was completely empty. Had it not been for the unmade bed, the piece of parchment and the burnt quill on the desk, one could easily assume that no one was staying there. Xena held that realization in the back of her mind. She would need time to think about how Gabrielle had managed to gather all her stuff and leave, while a fire was destroying everything.

The next thing Xena had to find out was how the bard had made it out of the room, since the door was locked. The answer to that question came fast to the warrior. As soon as she took a step towards the window, she noticed that it was broken. _'Good girl...'_ she thought and smiled to herself as she cautiously ran her fingers along the window frame.

After walking around a couple more times, Xena came to the conclusion that there was nothing else of interest in the room. She walked out, careful not to knock anything over and stood once again in the hallway, trying to decide which room she should visit next. She knew that she was looking for a girl's room, but that didn't made her decision any easier. The rooms all looked the same. Except two. These two rooms, Xena noticed, were joined by a door. Convinced that they were the innkeeper and her daughter's rooms, she entered the one closer to her.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :) Please leave a review so that I know what you guys think! Oh! By the way, Xena is on again here (Greece) and it started showing from like the fifth season.. :\ and anyways, I was watching it the other day and it was the episode ''Hunting of Amphipolis'' and they cut the scene where Xena dances with Gabrielle! I was like "Whaaat?!" and a couple of days ago the ring trilogy was on and they didn't show the kiss Xena gave to Gabby to wake her up... I was so disappointed.. :P  
P.S.: sooooo sorry for the lengthy A/Ns!**** Oh and also, one stadia is about 185m (607 ft.)  
**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Hi everyone! :) okay. this is gonna be one looong A/N! sorry about that... :P so, an other pretty quick update! It is now almost five o'clock in the morning but I just had to finish this one! I guess I become too engrossed when I start writing something... :P Anyways, as always, I hope you like it. And please, please, please leave a review! I love them! :P  
**

**~FallenAngelXWP: Nothing to worry about! Argo -as you'll notice- is just fine! I would never kill her! As I've already said, I like her too much to do something like that! :P Glad you liked it! Hope you like this one too!  
~Kamalackapacka: Again, thanks for reviewing! I'm afraid I have no idea when they are going to meet... Soon I hope! :P Yeah! They show it every summer! They usually start from the fifth season though.. And when they are done with seasons 5 and 6, they show it from the beginning... It's weird. I know.. Unfortunately, this year, I think they are only going to show seasons 5 and 6 though... Summer is almost over and the TV programs have to get back to normal. That means no more reruns and that means no more Xena... For now at least :P But I have all the episodes in my laptop so I can watch them whenever I feel like it! ;)  
P.S.: I really love it here! I'm actually from a village really close to Amphipolis, so I've been there 4 or 5 times! :) (btw, I'm Macedonian and Amphipolis is in Thrace but my village is really close to the borders between Macedonia and Thrace..) I've been to Potidaea too! Well. New Potidaea to be exact. The original village was destroyed many, _many_ years ago.. You know, some of the things on Xena are actually based on true events and facts. They are all pretty changed and everything but I keep finding little things.. For example Draco was an actual tyrant in Ancient Greece and -except of course Xena and Gabby- the story of Ulysses (or Odysseus as he is known here) exists as well. It's written by Homer, who was in the episode "Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards" :P anyways. I'm rumbling again... But I do love finding things like these in the episodes.. :P  
P.P.S.: Haha. Glad you enjoy them! I normally tend to talk too much so I'm always worried that I say too much in my A/Ns... Which today is actually true! Just look at my response to your review! wow!... lol  
~AlphaLuna87: Hey! Thanks for reviewing! I hate censorship! They cut half the show! :\ haha yeah, I guess Ambrosia is kinda like Gabrielle. I hadn't really noticed until you mentioned it actually.. Dunno why :P Well. You may sleep peacefully tonight cause Argo is finally found! lol Glad you enjoyed the previous chapter! Hope you like this one too :)  
~Stardawn19: Hi! Thank you for reviewing the first chapters! :) I hope you'll keep reading! I'm actually reading your story, "Blue Eyes, White Horse, and a Chakram", and I _love_ it! Sorry I haven't got around on reviewing but there are so many chapters and I'm actually reading one right after the other, and I keep forgetting to review them! :P anyways, I just wanted you to know that your story is great! just like the "Little Bard" one which I read quite some time ago.. haha  
**

**17.**

The whole time Xena was inside the inn, Arminius halfheartedly kept helping the villagers. He would carry large pieces of wood or buckets of water but he was less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. "I'm a warrior! Not a slave! This is humiliating on so many levels..." he often muttered to himself, cursing the moment he agreed to help. Sure, he wanted to change his life around. If Xena could do it, it would be a million times easier for him. He was no blood thirsty warlord after all. But it was starting to be clear that ''doing good'' would take some time to get used to.

* * *

Xena tried to open the door that joined the two rooms, only to discover that it was locked as well. Of course that didn't stop the warrior who was soon standing in front of the now kicked-open door, trying to decide which room belonged to the innkeeper and which to her daughter. In the room she was in, she hadn't found many things. Just some burnt clothing and a saddle. It looked like someone was in that room recently. Someone that probably had taken whatever was left unharmed by the flames. The other room, on the other hand, was full of stuff. There were plenty of clothes -either completely destroyed or still wearable- there was something that was possibly a brush left on the desk across the bed and there was a small table by the bed, which still had a tray with some pieces of melted kitchenware and a black mass that resembled food on it. The look of everything was so depressing. And just the thought of people living there the one minute and running for their lives or even being burnt alive the next, would bring anyone the chills. Xena felt uncomfortable being there. But she knew that in order to find Gabrielle, she had to find the innkeeper's daughter. And she _had_ to find Gabrielle.

The warrior walked around the room for a while, taking in every detail, just like she had done in the previous rooms. As soon as she reached the door, she knew something was off. The lock was broken -probably by someone using something like a staff, judging by the marks that were left on the wooden door. Xena could only think of one person who could do that with a staff and the thought of it put a smile on her face. _'Gabrielle in still alive. She _has_ to be!'_ she thought to herself and breathed deeply, a tad more relaxed than she was before.

After an other quick look in the two rooms, Xena was almost certain that the almost empty room had to have been the innkeeper's daughter's. Xena had noticed that the clothes left behind were something that a younger person would wear. And also, while checking the room that she assumed was Marianne's, the warrior had found a small, empty coin pouch. Why would someone take the money from their room but leave behind the still usable pieces of clothing? The emptier room just had to be the innkeeper's daughter's.

With that in mind, Xena returned to the hallway intending to fin out whether or not other rooms were being used when the fire broke out. She walked up and down, looking inside every single door. All the rooms looked pretty much identical and there were no signs that someone was living there. She was ready to give up when a particular room caught her attention. It was just like the others, big, with a decent-sized bed, a closet and a desk but something was different about it. While the bed sheets in all the other rooms seemed to had been set, in this room they looked like a messy mass on the bed. Something that could easily be used to start a fire. Xena had to find out who's room this was, as -apart from the bed sheets- it was completely empty, showing no signs of a person living in it.

_'That's odd...'_ thought the warrior after walking inside the room. She was almost certain that the one who had this room had set fire to the inn, causing the whole village to be destroyed and innocent people to lose their lives. If Xena was right, Ennius was the one occupying the room. Something that raised more questions than it answered. She already knew that it was him who set the village on fire, as she already knew why. The question now was where had Ennius gone after he completed his ''mission'' and how come nobody wondered where he was or even who he was, taken that he was a complete stranger. And why was his room so cut off from the rest of them? There were plenty of other, seemingly empty rooms much closer to the ones in which Marianne, her daughter and Gabrielle were staying. So why not use one of them? With all the questions pondering her mind, Xena wondered if her plan to leave Arminius behind was as good as she originally thought. The man could be proven useful as he knew more about Ennius and Pausanias than Xena did, but at the same time, the warrior didn't want to risk taking him along with her. Not for his own safety. After all according to him, he knew perfectly well how to fight. But because he could change sides just as soon as the enemies got a hold of them. She would kill him if necessary, even if he was traveling with her but it would be easier to do so if there wasn't any bond between them. And Xena knew that, in time, a bond would probably form. It wouldn't be a strong one but it would still be there.

The warrior, consumed by her thoughts, hadn't realized right away that she had walked out of what she thought was Ennius' room. Actually, she had walked out of the inn. She stood there watching Arminius helping the villagers and she couldn't help but smile at the fact that the man would probably prefer to be in prison, even tortured -mildly of course- rather than doing what it was he was doing at that moment. Xena walked slowly towards him, still unsure of whether she should leave him or take him with her. She knew that Pausanias' soldiers were getting closer, so she had to make the decision as fast as she could. She could run to the woods and don't let Arminius know she was leaving, or she could just whistle at him, to get his attention so that they could leave together.

The soldiers weren't going to hurt him. Xena had explained in the hastily written letter she had left behind in her cell that she had used Arminius in order to escape and that he had nothing to do with it, as she threatened to kill him if he had don otherwise. As to why the man was missing, according to the warrior, he was her insurance to get out safely. That meant that, if captured, Arminius would most likely lose his position in Pausanias' army but he would be safe.

Fearing that the soldiers were coming closer by the minute, Xena made her final decision and ran to the woods. Arminius would be alright.

-_**Elsewhere (later)**_-

After candlemarks of walking, Ambrosia noticed that the sun had begun to set. Gabrielle had found a quiet and well protected opening in the woods and had decided to set up her camp. Ambrosia had never been more grateful. She was dying to get her boots off and lie down to get some much needed sleep.

The bard had left the village quite in a hurry and hadn't gotten any of her things with her. She didn't even know if her things -all packed and left in the stables- were saved from the fire. The only items she had with her were her staff, which she never left behind, a flask full of water she had managed to take from her room and a small -and unfortunately almost empty- coin pouch that she always kept safe in her halter top. She had no food so she had to either hunt or find some fruit; and with her not so good history in hunting, she had settled upon eating fruit. Not that it helped her overcome her hunger but it was something.

Ambrosia, on the other hand, apart from the pouch full of dinars she was carrying, she had found a crispy yet still edible loaf of bread. And she couldn't believe her luck when she found some cheese as well. It was safe to say that as far as food and money were concerned, Ambrosia was more well-off than the bard.

The girl watched Gabrielle sitting down and attempting to light a fire. It took her some time but she finally made it, letting out a sound of both relief and contentment. As soon as the fire problem was solved, the young bard stood up and started wondering around, surveying her surroundings, making sure she was alone and not being watched. Ambrosia had to hide deep in a bush and hold her breath when Gabrielle started approaching her, her staff never leaving her hands. She closed her eyes tightly and hoped she would not be discovered.

The blonde bard hesitated for a second, as she thought she heard something moving to her right. She rose her staff to an attacking position and Ambrosia's heart started pounding as she was trying to stay as still and quiet as humanly possible. She could feel drops of sweat forming on her forehead when Gabrielle took a couple of steps towards her hiding place. But the bard suddenly stopped and turned abruptly around. Something else had caught her attention. A very, _very_ familiar sound. Gabrielle lowered her weapon and ran to the direction of the sound. Ambrosia was sure that the bard yelled something but she couldn't make out what it was. All the girl could hear was a really irritating buzzing in her ears, caused by the adrenaline of the moment before.

Gabrielle ran, following the sound, deeper and deeper into the woods. She used her staff to move some branches out of her way and to push herself up the couple of times she lost her footing. The bard believed she had never ran so fast in her entire life. Suddenly she stopped and looked around frantically. _'Oh wonderful! Lost! Again.'_ she thought and looked around once more. It wasn't Gabrielle's first time getting lost. Of course it wasn't. She had gotten lost, three times, when she was on her way to Beroea despite the fact that she didn't know where she was or where she was going. Only after she had passed the same pile of rocks two times did she realize that she was lost and actually moving in circles. And she passed it once more until she had finally found her way. This time was different though. She didn't have Argo -yet- which meant she would have to walk, and she wasn't looking for a village. A village was pretty hard to miss. A campfire on the other hand. That was a whole different matter.

The young bard let out a sigh, took a deep breath and put her thumb and index finger in her mouth. Her previous attempts on whistling had been an utter disaster but right now, that was her only option. Gabrielle's whistle was louder than it had been any of the other times she had tried it and that surprised her. The young bard waited for a while and then whistled again, this time even louder and more confident. Moments later, she heard a horse's hooves approaching her. Gabrielle turned and let out a laugh. Argo was coming to her and she seemed just fine. Her front left leg looked like it was injured, making her limp a bit, but other than that Argo was in excellent health. Gabrielle approached her with a smile still on her face.

"I thought I heard you!" she said, petting Argo's snout. The horse neighed slightly in response to the affection it received. "We'll go back to the campsite and then check your leg. Okay?" said Gabrielle as if she was talking to a person and not to a horse. Argo moved her head as if nodding 'yes' and the bard smiled once more. _'Smart horse!'_ she thought. _'No wonder Xena adores you.'_

"Okay. I need something to tie you with." said the bard and looked around. "No, don't worry! It'll only be for a little while. Just until we reach the campsite. I promise!" she added when Argo started walking away from her, neighing loudly. "I just don't want to lose you again. That's all!" continued Gabrielle while searching for something that could be used as a rope. It didn't take her a long time to find a nice vine that looked log and strong enough and could be used to be tied around Argo's neck kinda like a rein. The bard used her teeth to cut it. It was harder than she thought it would be. It took her a while but she finally made it. She then walked towards Argo, spitting out some small pieces from the vine and looking disgusted.

"Oh the things I do for you..." she mumbled as she tied the vine loosely around the horse's neck. "Now. Let's see if we can find our way back." she said, looking at the sky which was now dark and full of stars. "That's going to be harder that I thought..." she added in a quiet tone.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Xena had heard Pausanias' soldiers coming to the village minutes after she had reached the woods. She could hear the villagers' panicked screams and she hoped that the soldiers wouldn't hurt anyone. She wanted to go there and help them, kill some of the enemies if necessary, but she knew she couldn't do that. If she went back, she risked getting captured again, and that wouldn't help her find Gabrielle. Not in the least bit. The warrior stood at the edge of the forest, hidden behind a tree, observing the scene played in front of her. There were ten or maybe even twenty men on horses and a few more without. They all seemed pretty angry. _'That's not good.'_ thought Xena, wishing she could just jump in front of them and take them out with her Chakram.

One of the men on the horses was obviously of higher status and he was leading the rest of them. His armor was far better that those the others were wearing. Even his horse had an armor on. _'Could that be Pausanias?'_ wondered Xena, finding odd that he was actually leading the troops instead of staying safely in his tent. Most of the warlords she knew, would have stayed behind in a mission like this one. Suddenly, the warrior's gaze fell upon Arminius. It was clear that the man didn't know what to do. He was looking around manically trying to locate Xena but with not much luck. The warrior was surprised when she saw the man falling to his knees as soon as the leader of the soldiers approached him, not getting off his horse. The leader, probably Pausanias, yelled at the man who avoided eye contact, keeping his eyes to the ground. His voice was loud enough for Xena to hear.

"How could you do this? You of all my men!" he had yelled. Arminius was at a loss for words. He started mumbling inaudible words that seemed like 'please don't kill me' to the warrior who had set her eyes on the man's mouth, trying to read his lips.

"I'm not going to kill you. Yet." said Pausanias and Arminius rose his head and looked at him with a questioning expression on his face. "Where is she?" he asked and Xena gulped.

"Wh- Who?" asked Arminius.

"Don't pretend you don't know. I said I won't kill you but I didn't gave you my word." Now, it was Arminius' turn to gulp. He had no idea where Xena was and something told him that Pausanias' wouldn't be too happy about it.

"I- I don't know..." he said quietly.

"You see," started Pausanias. "I found _this_ in her cell." he said showing the man the piece of parchment Xena had wrote on. "Says here you let her out. Is that true?" Pausanias' tone was calm but pretend at the same time.

"She- Um- She... She threatened t-"

"To kill you?"

"Yes...?" It wasn't so much of an answer as it was a question.

"Are you asking me, or telling me?" said Pausanias angrily.

"Telling you..."

"Good..." he said quietly and then turned to the others. "Tie him and take him back to the camp. We'll continue our little chat later." he said. Two soldiers approached Arminius, who showed no resistance, and tied his wrists. One of them seemed to tell him something that Xena couldn't make out. Then, the other took the rope, mounted his horse and started leaving, pulling Arminius with him.

"Sir. What about the villagers?" asked one of the soldiers.

Pausanias looked at the frightened faces of the people and said: "I seem to be in quite a good mood today, Heromenes. The place is already burnt so I say we let them be." Xena raised an eyebrow at his words. A warlord who was actually being kind to villagers? "On the other hand..." Pausanias voice was heard again. "The place is already bunt." he said and turned to the man next to him. "Torch what has been saved." he commanded and turned his horse around, leaving his men follow through with his orders.

**A/N: Dun dun duuuun... haha I decided to finish this one with a cliffhanger. Sorry about that! :P So, thanks for reading and don't forget to review! :D**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: And voilà! An other chapter! :) This one is slightly shorter that the previous three or four. Oh well... Okay. I just have to say that this is one of the longest fanfics I have ever written! Usually I write up to chapter 10 or 11 and then I'm just stuck! But look at this one! Chapter 18 and going on 19! *yay* And I have to thank you all for reading and reviewing cause this makes me try to write even when I don't have any good ideas! So, yay you! hahah  
P.S.: There is violence in this one. Nothing too much, but this is Xena we're talking about. She gets bored without some action! :P**

**~zelwicka: hi! Thanks for reading and reviewing my story! I'm glad you enjoy it! Hope you'll keep reading :) As for Xena finding Gabrielle, I'm getting there :) I'm taking my time, but I assure you I'm getting there! :P  
~XenaGabrielleFOREVER: hey! Thank you for reviewing and for favouriting me and my story! :) Will do. Don't worry! haha  
~Kamalackapacka: Hello again! Don't worry about it! No hard feelings, I assure you :P You know, every time I upload a new chapter, I'm actually waiting for you to review it hahah I love getting your reviews!  
Most of the places they mention in the show existed -or still do. It's one of the (many) things I like about it!  
I'm glad you liked it! :) Let's just hope you'll ike this one too lol Now about Amphipolis. I don't think it means something... Although it is a compound word, consisted of the words "αμφί" (pronounced ˈ'amfi and meaning near, close by) and "πόλις" (pronounced pólis and meaning city, town), I don't believe it has a special meaning.. Hope this answers your question :) oh and btw, google translation sucks big time! As do most online translators as a matter of fact.. :P  
**

**18.**

Ambrosia sat there waiting for Gabrielle's return. She never went too far away from the bush she was hiding in earlier, just in case she had to hide again. Almost a candlemark went by with no sign of the bard anywhere around. Just as the girl had started to worry, she heard a familiar voice coming her way. _'Who is Gabrielle talking to?'_ wondered the girl as she hid back deep in the bush. A few moments later, Ambrosia saw who Gabrielle was talking to. The bard walked right past her holding a vine which -much to the girl's surprise and relief- was tied around Argo's neck. Ambrosia let out a sound of pity when she noticed that Argo was limping slightly.

Gabrielle tied the vine to a nearby tree and approached the fire. She poked it with a stick to prevent it from going out and then she turned her attention to the lightly injured horse. She went closer and attempted to touch Argo's leg. The horse was not happy about it and tried to kick the bard, who narrowly avoided the hit.

"Whoa! Argo!" said Gabrielle, getting back up on her feet. "Don't worry girl. I just want to help you." she continued and approached her hesitantly, her hand extended with the intention of petting the horse's snout. Argo moved a few inches away from the bard how pulled her arm abruptly. "Come on now." she said to the horse as she took a step closer. This time Argo didn't move. She let Gabrielle put her hand on her snout and pet her gently. "Good girl." said the bard and smiled. "Now. I need to see that leg of yours, okay? So I want you to stay really, really still. It will only take a second." As Gabrielle was talking, she knelt in front of Argo and slowly took her leg in her hands to examine it. The horse whined but didn't move. "That's it. Now don't move, okay?" Gabrielle's hands lifted expertly the horse's leg so that she could see the full extend of the injury. "It's nothing." she said to herself. "Seems like you sprained it. Don't worry. You'll be running again in no time. I just need something to tie it so it won't get worse..." continued, now talking to Argo. The bard got up and looked around. There had to be something that could be used as a bandage. Of course she didn't have anything with her and that meant she'd have to improvise. All she needed was a piece of cloth. As Gabrielle was searching for something, her eyes fell upon her skirt. She stood straight and checked the length of it. It reached just above her knees. _'I could live with a shorter skirt...' _she thought as she ripped a piece off it to tie Argo's leg.

"That should do for now." said Gabrielle and sighed. Argo neighed, trying to draw the bard's attention. "Oh right. You want me to untie you, don't you? Well okay." said the blonde and took the vine off the horse's neck. "There you go. Don't wander off." she advised and sighed internally. _'Look at me. As if I'm talking to a real person instead of a horse...'_ she thought and smiled lightly at the sight of Argo. She was beautiful and proud, just like her master.

"Okay." said Gabrielle and blinked a couple of times, coming back to reality. "Time to go to bed." she said as she looked at the sky which was now pitch black.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Pausanias' men let out a yell before running towards the villagers. The ones who were already carrying a torch started burning anything that seemed to be in a relatively good condition. The others were picking up pieces of wood, lighting them and then using them as torches as well. The villagers were running and screaming, trying to save what they could. Some of them were braver than others and decided to attack the soldiers, using every weapon they had at their disposal. Rakes, shovels, pieces of wood, bricks, anything. Some went against the enemies even with bare hands. The women were trying desperately to protect the children by guiding them into the woods.

Xena watched as the people were once more fighting for their lives. _'I can't just stand here and watch!'_ she thought as she ran to the battlefield letting out her well-known war cry. She charged in without processing the decision in her mind. She didn't weigh the pros and cons, like Gabrielle would. She did what felt right. And saving those villagers certainly felt right.

A number of soldiers stopped attacking and several heads turned to the direction of the cry.

"It's Xena!" yelled one of them, and soon enough almost all of them were running towards her. She could take them down. She had no sword and no Chakram but she could take all of them down. No doubt about it.

She jumped the first soldier who came close to her and kicked him in the back. She then proceeded in twisting the neck of the next one, who fell on the ground lifeless. The next three were beaten easily by the warrior. The two suffered the consequences of the pinch and the third a blow to the head.

The darkness made it difficult for them to see her. And given that they were all wearing helmets, things were much easier for Xena. She decided to take advantage of that and hid in the shadows, after picking up a sword from the ground. She wanted to finish all of them without using any weapons but she figured that it would take much longer and she didn't have much time to waste. She was already behind schedule and she wasn't about to lose more of her precious time. The warrior, still hidden, counted the remaining soldiers."Seven..." she whispered and started working on her attack plan. She could slit a couple of throats, and then stab the rest of them. _'Quick and easy.'_ she thought as she abandoned her hiding place. Her warlord days were far behind her, but Xena still enjoyed a good battle. The adrenaline shooting through her veins and her heart pumping in her chest were two feelings that she would always welcome.

The warrior walked inaudibly behind two of the soldiers. Their death was quick. She grabbed one of them from behind and slit his throat with one swift motion. When the other one turned to face her, she drove her sword through him, ending his life immediately.

"Two down, five to go." she said as the rest of the soldiers turned on her, holding their swords. Xena kicked the wrist of one of them, causing him to drop his weapon. She then kicked him in the stomach and proceeded to elbow an other man who was coming from behind. The hit made his helmet fly off his head but only caused him to stumble back a bit with a bloody nose. Of course that didn't bother Xena. She'd get back to him when she was done with the fallen soldier in front of her.

He wasn't wearing a helmet either and Xena looked at him straight in the eyes. He was young. Not over twenty-five summers old. A young man like him should be busy finding himself a nice girl and settling down, not burning villages and killing innocent people. The warrior could see the fear in the younger man's eyes as she approached him, lifting her sword above her head. One quick blow and his life would end. Xena was ready to strike but something in her made her hesitate. It was like a knot in her stomach. Looking in this young soldier's eyes, the warrior knew that being there wasn't his choice. She slowly lowered her weapon, making the man let out the breath he was holding all this time. He gave Xena a slight smile filled with relief, but that sentiment didn't last long. A moment later, the soldier was knocked unconscious by the warrior, who then turned to the man whose nose she had just elbowed. This time, she didn't hesitate as she stabbed the soldier, her sword going all the way through him.

Three men were still standing and they were all eager to kill the Warrior Princess. Xena smiled as she saw them running towards her. They didn't stand a chance. All it took was a high frond flip. None of them saw it coming and that disoriented them. This gave Xena the time she needed to grab a second sword and with one quick movement she attacked two of the three soldiers. Both of them let out a sound of surprise as the swords came out of their chests and they fell to the ground. The third man -who had now turned around and was facing the warrior- looked at her with his eyes filled with hatred. He let out a yell as he ran towards her. Xena jumped in an attempt to avoid him, but the man was faster than she thought. He raised his sword just as the warrior jumped over him. Xena felt a sharp pain in her leg and lost her balance. She fell on the ground with a loud thud and she struggled to get back on her feet, only to realize that it was impossible to put too much weight on her injured leg. _'This makes it a whole lot more challenging.'_ she thought as she got up, trying to keep her weight on her left leg instead of her right. Xena was impressed by the soldier's speed and accuracy but she wouldn't admit it.

As the man ran towards her once more, the warrior jumped again, this time higher. She landed behind him, hissing and squeezing her eyes because of the pain that shot through her body. But she wouldn't let that stop her from knocking the man out. Using her hurt leg and all the strength she had in her, she kicked the man on the back, causing him to fall flat on his face. Xena stumbled a bit but was able to find her footing instantly. The fallen soldier turned and removed his helmet to face her.

"It's you..." she whispered, anger overwhelming her.

"You missed me?" asked the man sarcastically. "I bet you are still wondering how I was able to knock you and your friend unconscious the other day. Actually, I'm pretty impressed myself." he continued and smiled at an evil smile at the warrior. "You never did remember my name, did you? It's Heromenes. Remember it, cause I was the one who managed to capture Xena! The _'Warrior Princess'_!" he used the exact same ironic tone on the words 'Warrior Princess' he had used several days ago, when he had met her in the woods. That time, everything had gone according to plan and he had managed to get captured and led back to the campsite. The rest had been fairly easy. All it took, was some drugged water that had knocked the irritating little blond unconscious and a strong blow to the head for Xena. Who was too smart to drink.

Xena knelt next to Heromenes, filling an unbeatable need to just poke his eyeballs out. She knew he deserved it, after all he had done. But she also knew that doing something like that, would probably kill him fast. Something that she didn't plan to do. She pressed her sword against his neck, drawing a little blood.

"You are going to die Heromenes." she whispered into his ear. "Eventually..." she added and punched the man on the jaw, putting all her rage in the blow. The hit had knocked him unconscious but Xena was far from done with him.

**A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review and tell me what you think! :)**


	19. Chapter 19

*****I had to re-upload this chapter as there was something wrong and it couldn't be read!***  
**

**A/N: Hi! an other -fairly quick- update everyone! :) Unfortunately, I won't be able to update a lot for a couple of weeks... I got a job at a bookstore and with the new school year coming up, things are going to be pretty hectic! But I'll try my best to write whenever I can! :D So, I hope you enjoy this chapter (which is back to my usual length -not too short not too long) and you don't find it too confusing... Truth is, I have used about three ''Elsewhere''s and I'm afraid that they won't help you keep track of the events... Just ask me if you have any questions! :)  
**

**~Kamalackapacka: Hi! Thanks! Glad you liked it :) It was probably my first time writing action and I feared it would suck so the fact that you liked it makes me happy! :P Haha I'm always trying not to get too serious on what I'm writing.. Dunno why. It just feels right... and yeah. It's the same man who appeared in chapter 3.  
P.S.: No problem! Glad I could help  
P.P.S.: aaw! thanks! your reviews are just as good! :) you know, i was wondering, why don't you make an account? you can have it just for reviews and stuff if you don't want to upload anything..  
Oh and yeah. I got what you meant :P  
**

**19.**

Heromenes open his eyes as the fist rays of the sun hit his face. He ached all over his body and he felt numb. Only gods knew what Xena had done to him this time. He tried to look around as the warrior's last words came to mind.

"_You are going to die Heromenes... Eventually..."_

That's what she had said to him and apparently, eventually wasn't too far away. The man's hands and legs where tied together firmly and he couldn't move at all. He could feel the hard ground underneath him as he laid there helpless. His head ached and his vision was so blurry that not even blinking continuously helped him clear it. A few moments later, and when his sight was almost completely restored, he was able to take a good look at his surroundings. He was lying in the middle of the forest and Xena was nowhere around. There were no supplies of food and water either. Heromenes started feeling his panic rising as he realized that he was indeed going to die; and a cruel death too, by the looks of it. It would take days for the others to find him. If they ever managed to find him, that is, as nobody knew he was missing. As a matter of fact, nobody knew that the soldiers were attacked and slaughtered by the Warrior Princess. So how was he supposed to be found? _'Oh gods, help me...' _The man prayed silently as realization finally hit home. He was not going to get through this.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Ambrosia woke up from what she'd describe as one of the best and most needed slumbers of her life -despite the fact that she had slept on the cold ground- only to find out that Gabrielle was gone.

"What? Oh great!... Good one, Ambrosia..." she muttered to herself while sitting up. The girl had her share of talents but following tracks was _not_ one of them; and she knew it. Looking up at the sky, she tried to determine the time. She thanked the gods that her Mother had insisted on her learning to tell the time by the position of the sun during the day and the stars during the night even though Ambrosia believed it was the most boring thing she ever had to learn. She thought it would be useless too, but the last days she had been proven wrong more than once.

The fire Gabrielle had lit the night before was completely out, leaving behind only some burnt pieces of wood -some of them still smoking. Ambrosia could see the pile of leaves the bard had used as a pillow. _'Why didn't I think of that?'_ she thought as she rubbed her somewhat stiff neck.

The girl decided that the only thing she could do, was get up and keep walking to the same direction the bard was going all the previous day, in hopes that Gabrielle would be too far away. And she wasn't.

Ambrosia stood on her feet and stretched. It may have been uncomfortable, but she could have slept on a pile of rocks for all she cared with the tiredness she was feeling the day before. She bent to get her things but froze mid movement. She could sense that someone was behind her. She had even heard a sound like somebody had stepped on dry leaves. The girl tried to keep her breathing under control as she rose slowly but keeping herself calm became harder when she felt something touching her left shoulder blade. Ambrosia closed her eyed tightly and waited for the person's next move. The person behind her removed the weapon and hemmed. Ambrosia turned sharply at the sound of the familiar voice.

"What are you doing here?" she asked both relived and surprised.

"I could ask you the same thing." said Gabrielle, with a light smile on her face. "I thought you were going to stay and help the villagers." she added.

"Um... I would... Yeah... But, you see..." Ambrosia was trying desperately to find an excuse for being there.

"Yes...?" said the bard slowly.

"You... Um... You left all your things behind and I thought you would need them sooner or later so I... I brought them to you...?" said Ambrosia putting on an innocent expression. Gabrielle's smile became wider. She hadn't believed a word of what the girl had just said. Sure her things were all there -along with Xena's armor and Chakram- but that was not the reason why Ambrosia had followed her. Well- It was not the _main_ reason.

"Look. I really wanted to come with you but I didn't know if you wanted me along." said Ambrosia, finally giving up on her made-up story.

"So you followed me."

"Kinda..." replied the girl and looked to the ground.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have been hurt!" said Gabrielle and put her arm on the younger girl's shoulder. "But truth is, I'm really glad you are here." Ambrosia looked up and smiled. "I wanted to ask you to come along but by the time I had made up my mind, you were already gone. I figured you didn't want to come so I left. I didn't know you were gonna follow me."

"Yeah well... Aren't I a little dare-devil?" said Ambrosia and they both laughed. "How did you know I was here anyway?" she asked as she stopped laughing.

"I knew someone was following me ever since I stopped to eat. I didn't know who it was but I figured that if it was a bandit he would make a move sooner or later..."

"Is that why you kept looking around?"

"That's one of the reasons. I was trying to find Argo too. Xena would be extremely mad if I lost her horse!"

"Yeah. Can't say I'm surprised..." said Ambrosia and smiled. "So um... How did you know I was here?" she asked.

"Last night, when I let Argo walk around, I noticed that she would go in circles around your hiding place. I think she smelled you or something... I thought that whatever was in the place she was circling wasn't a threat as she didn't act threatened or anything. That's why I didn't come here until now."

"Wow... Smart horse..." said the girl, mostly to herself.

"Tell me about it!..." replied Gabrielle and added: "So what do you say? We keep walking? And you can walk next to me now." Ambrosia nodded as Gabrielle pushed her lightly in the shoulder.

"Okay." said the girl.

"Okay. So, I'll go get Argo and you wait here. Gather some fruit. We'll need to eat eventually and I am no hunter... We're leaving as soon as I'm back."

"Deal!" replied Ambrosia and the bard left, in search for Argo.

"Ready?" yelled Gabrielle from a distance, making Ambrosia look up sharply. Te bard was walking towards her, holding the vine around Argo's neck.

"You bet!" said Ambrosia when Gabrielle reached her. "You know, I did bring Argo's reins if you want to use them instead of the vine. It can't be very comfortable." she continued and the bard nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. You are probably right. Let's just put the reins on Argo and then we can go."

"Okay." replied the girl and picked the reins up.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Xena had no idea where she was going. After she tied Heromenes and carried him deep enough into the forest so that he wouldn't be found right away, she returned to the village, to find something -anything at all- that would help her find either Gabrielle or the innkeeper's daughter who would probably know where Gabrielle was.

The warrior followed some tracks that seemed to have been made quite recently and led to the stables. A feeling of worry started rising up within her. She sped up as the thought of Argo being in danger crept into her mind. The walking soon turned into running and as the warrior got to the stables door Argo's name escaped through her lips. Xena walked cautiously inside, holding her breath. She looked around for any sign of her horse but instead she saw the hole on the wall. The warrior sighed and smiled in relief. Argo was okay. She had to be. Everything in the stables implied that the horse had managed to escape through that hole and Xena could be happier. It was true she had lost her horse, but at least Argo was fine. And of course Gabrielle would look for her and would take care of her if she was injured.

Yes. Xena, for the first time in four days, felt happy and hopeful again. Now all the warrior had to do was find Gabrielle's tracks and follow them. Being an excellent tracker, following the bard wouldn't be hard. She knew that her friend was less than careful as far as covering her tracks was concerned and this was one of the rare times that Xena was okay with that.

On her way back to the village, the warrior decided to stop and check on Heromenes before leaving. She wanted to make sure that he was getting what he deserved. And in this case, according to Xena, what he deserved was a slow and preferably painful death. She was certain that when Gabrielle found out about her actions, she would be anything but pleased, as the warrior had chosen to torture a man; and that was unacceptable to the bard, even if he was partly responsible for everything that had happened to them.

* * *

"Hello, Heromenes." said the warrior as she approached the man who had started having the first symptoms of dehydration. "I trust you are enjoying yourself." she added and smirked.

"Not as much as you." replied the man sarcastically and turned his head around, facing away from Xena.

"Now, Heromenes. Don't you know it's rude not to look at the person you are talking to? I'm sure you know better that that." said the warrior in a soft voice and moved so that she was once again standing in front of the man. He turned his head again and Xena kicked him in the stomach, making the air shoot out of his lungs. "Now what did I tell you?" she asked and knelt next to him, turning his head towards her as Heromenes gasped for air. "You know, I was going to let you go but now I'm just not sure..." she continued quietly. "I really don't know what to do with you, Heromenes... You disgust me." The man tried to move his head but Xena grabbed him by the neck. "Uh-uh! You know I could kill you if I want to. Do you wanna risk it?" she asked as her grip tightened. The man nodded 'no' with his head and the warrior rose to her feet. "Good."

"So what are you going to do?" asked Heromenes with a slight tremble in his voice.

"I think I'm just gonna leave you here. Your 'friends' will find you in the end but it's probably going to be too late by then." as Xena spoke, she showed the man a flask with water. It was enough for only one use.

"I'm gonna leave this here." she said and she placed the flask inches away from the man's reach. "If you manage to take it, it's yours. But remember. It's only enough for one time. Don't be greedy over it." And with that, Xena turned around and walked away.

"You bitch!" whispered Heromenes as he tried to move towards the flask, without succeeding. Suddenly, the war cry he had come to know so well broke the silence and Xena appeared next to him, doing a backflip.

"I heard that." she said and kicked the man in the head, causing him to loose consciousness. "That's no way to talk to a woman." she said and left once again, in search for Gabrielle.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

"What?!" Androkles smashed his hands on the table in front of him and rose from his chair, knocking it down. "You had one job, Pausanias! One! How could Xena escape?" he barked at Pausanias who was standing opposite him, with a repulsed expression on his face.

The two men worked as King Philip's bodyguards for many years. They both came up with the plan to kill the King, each of them for his own reasons of course, but the decision was mutual. It was Pausanias who had to poison Phillip though and he did not appreciate that Androkles did nothing but sit back and give around orders. Androkles and Pausanias had come to loath each other and the latest mishap, for which Pausanias was responsible, did nothing to ease their feelings.

"I don't know okay? It's Xena! She just did!" Pausanias yelled back. "I'd like to see you capture and imprison her! I bet you wouldn't even be able to find her! All you ever do is command everyone, never do something yourself! I bet you are enjoying yourself, huh? Do you enjoy seeing your men get killed one by one by that woman? Do you?" his last words were louder and in a more attacking tone.

"Oh Pausanias..." said Androkles and nodded his head in a judgmental way. "When will you learn? We are good at different things. Me being good at almost everything, and you at almost nothing. That's why I'm in charge of organizing the troupes and giving out orders. You on the other hand, since we have yet to find out what you talent is, you are obliged to do as you are told." Androkles was talking the way he would talk to a small child and Pausanias could feel his anger boiling.

"Look. I'm just gonna walk away. I don't want to ruin the plan by... Well. Killing you." he said after taking a deep breath trying to calm himself down. Androkles laughed as Pausanias walked out of the tent with clenched fists.

"Sir. If the warrior woman escaped, she's probably going to lead us to the blonde one. So you don't have to be so hard on Pausanias. Your plan can still work." said a soldier standing next to Androkles.

"I know. I just like messing with his head." replied the man and grinned.

**A/N: Just wanted to say that the last episodes of Xena were on a couple of days ago and I remembered why I didn't like watching them... I mean sure. Scenery was gr8, costumes were gr8 but the ending?! Come on! That's why I enjoy reading PostFIN fanfics! at least on here, we can get a better ending... :P**


	20. Chapter 20

**A.N.: Hi everyone! :) I'm soooo sorry it took me so long to update... I'm afraid I've been extremely busy... So, this chapter is a bit rushed (because of the delay) and I don't think it turned out as good as the previous ones... But I had to upload something! :P I think that the next one will be a bit better. :) Anyways, plz r/r! ~Enjoy!~  
P.S.: Thanks for the faves and alerts :D  
**

**~zelwicka: Thanks! Glad you like it :) Hope you enjoy this one!  
~Kamalackapacka: Haha thank you! That's probably how Aphrodite would say it :P I'm happy you liked that last bit! I wanted to include Androkles since he hadn't appeared once in the story, and I also wanted something lighter. you know, not too much drama in one chapter.. so the fact that you liked it, tells me that I probably achieved my goal :P  
To answer you question, there are people with names like these. It's become quite rare lately though.. Most girls are named Maria or Helen and most boys John or George. But the are the occasional few who have ancient greek names. :) I think they are beautiful names too. I always wanted to name my daughter (if I ever have one) something like Artemis or Electra. :P  
P.S.: Making an account is completely free! You just need to sign up :)  
~FallenAngelXWP: Thank you :) I'm so happy you like it! So, did you start over? If you did, I hope you weren't confused about anything.. If you were -cause some parts are a bit weird- I'd be mmore that happy to give you any extra info or something :D  
**

**20.**

"Is it a... Rock?"

Ambrosia and Gabrielle had been walking for about two candlemarks and things had started to become pretty boring. The bard was happy that she was finally traveling with someone who was willing to pay attention to her -instead of just pretending to listen, which was what Xena did most of the times. And was even happier when Ambrosia suggested they play the "I spy" game. Usually, it was Gabrielle who had to practically beg the Warrior Princess to play a game like that. But not this time.

"No."

"_I spy with my little eye something beginning with r."_ had said the bard and Ambrosia had spent almost half a candlemark guessing words beginning with that letter. But unfortunately with no luck at all.

"Is it a raft?"

"No."

"Um... Reins?"

"Nope."

"Ugh... Rain?"

"Wrong again."

"Oh come on! Is it a ruby?" Ambrosia's patience had started to wear out.

"Oh get real. Where would I have seen a ruby while we're walking?"

"I don't know. Where would you have seen rain?"

"Good point."

"Okay. I quit." said the girl, finally giving up. "What is it?"

"A rolled up scroll." answered Gabrielle with a grin.

"What? That's cheating!"

"No it's not."

"Yes it is! It's like three words! We only play with one word!" exclaimed Ambrosia and punched the bard lightly in the shoulder.

"Says who?" asked the young blonde.

"The rules...!"

"I beg to differ. You see, nobody ever said that we should use only one word. Besides. Someone once told me that rules are meant to be broken. So..." said Gabrielle as her smile became wider.

"This game is stupid." said Ambrosia and folded her hands across her chest.

"Cause I'm winning?"

"No. Cause you are cheating." replied the girl and gave Gabrielle a cold stare that made her let out a snort-like laugh. "Anyway, I'm tired of it. We should do something else." she continued.

"Like?" asked the bard.

"I don't know... You find something."

"Yeah. Like _I _know..."

"Oh! The great Gabrielle is out of ideas!" said Ambrosia mockingly.

"Stop that." said Gabrielle and Ambrosia laughed. "Okay. Irrelevant question." continued the bard.

"I'm listening."

"Just _how_ did you manage to carry all these things by yourself?" asked Gabrielle while adjusting the strap of a saddlebag that was hanging from her shoulder and getting a better grip on Xena's breastplate that she was also carrying. Ambrosia was holding two other saddlebags and a smaller bag's strap was tied around her wrist. With Argo being injured, neither of them wanted her to carry anything until her leg was fully healed. The girl shrugged her shoulders slightly in response to the bard's question.

"I don't know. I just did..." she said. "It's all about how you organize your stuff, really. You usually need to have the heavier items in bags and hanging from you shoulders, so that you don't get too tired. And then you just carry as many of the lighter things as you can... at least that's what I do..." she continued. "Oh and I might had been wearing Xena's breastplate..." she added, making Gabrielle stop on her tracks.

"You put on Xena's breastplate?"

"Well... It was too heavy to carry...!" said Ambrosia trying not to apologize, but just to explain what happened.

"Nobody wears Xena's breastplate but Xena!" said Gabrielle. "Did it even fit you?" she added as she resumed walking.

"Well not at first. I had to make some teeny tiny adjustments to it. It fits like a glove now!" replied the girls and the bard sighed.

"Oh that's just great. Wait till she finds out you messed with her armor." said murmured and continued: "Gods... Ain't that going to be fun?"

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Xena had found Gabrielle's tracks quite easily and was now following her friend's footsteps for about half a day.

The tatter the warrior was wearing had been replaced by a dress she had collected from the innkeeper's room. She knew she probably shouldn't have taken it, but she was not going to walk around looking like a peasant. It would draw too much attention if someone in that clothing walked around in the woods alone. She'd become an easy target. Maybe not an easy one but definitely a target.

The dress was long and green, with little flowers covering the bottom half and a yellow top. It was everything Xena hated -as far as clothing went- combined. Long dresses -especially the patterned ones- and light colors. Long dresses made it hard to move around, as she would always trip on herself and bright colors just weren't her. The warrior was so used to wearing black leather, anything else seemed at least awfully wrong.

Xena had debated with herself for a while on whether she should modify the dress or not. It was slowing her down but at the same time, it felt weird to ruin a dead woman's piece of clothing. But when she tripped on herself for the fifth time, the warrior decided that she should be practical instead of emotional about the whole situation.

She pulled out a knife she had taken from one of the villagers -along with a flask full of water and some food supplies- and started cutting the dress. By the time she was done, it looked more like something Aphrodite would wear and not the Warrior Princess, but it was easier for her to move now and so that was good enough. At least until she had the chance to either buy new clothes or get her old ones back. And the warrior really hoped for the old ones.

While she was walking, Xena noticed that there were two sets of footprints on the ground. _'Someone's following Gabrielle.'_ she thought. _'That can't be good.' _As the time passed though, the warrior realized that whoever was following her friend had no intention of harming the bard as the distance between the two of them was never less than a stadia. It was apparent that the person wanted to remain unseen by the bard, who -judging by the footprints- had no idea that someone was behind her. But despite that, there were no changes in the other person's speed of pacing

An other candlemark or two passed when Xena found the abandoned campsite, set up by Gabrielle the night before. The warrior walked around for a while, examining her surroundings. She found a cut vine and a brown piece of cloth.

"Is this from Gabrielle's skirt?" she murmured as she picked the cloth up, bringing it closer to her face to examine it. After a quick look, Xena was certain that it indeed was a piece from the bard's brown skirt. _'What are you doing, Gabrielle?'_ she wondered silently as she let the cloth fall to the ground and she took an other look around. She saw the burnt branches and the pile of leaves nearby. She knew that Gabrielle couldn't have gone too far. The bard's pacing was never very fast and she knew her friend too well to be sure that something would probably keep her behind schedule.

The warrior's mouth suddenly formed into a smile, when she saw a pair of extra, very familiar tracks.

"Argo...!" she whispered as she ran her fingers in the dirt, tracing the pattern of the tracks. As Xena did so, something caused her to frown. Except Gabrielle's and Argo's tracks, there was one other pair, unknown to the warrior. She realized that they were made by the same person who was following the bard, only now instead of walking behind her, the person was walking right next to her and Argo. Xena rose to her feet and looked at the direction where Gabrielle was headed. She had to speed up if she wanted to catch up with the bard before sunset.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

Heromenes' eyes opened slowly and painfully. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious. It was obvious that nobody had found him yet -he would be out of that mess if someone had. All he could do was pray to the gods that he would be saved soon. Very soon, as a matter of fact, as he already had blurry vision and he was lightheaded and extremely thirsty. He knew he wouldn't last much longer.

He made a desperate attempt to catch the flask which was inches away from him, only to fail miserably. He didn't have enough energy to blink, let alone move. Moments later, he could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness once again, though this time, something told him it would be for good.

And then the most unexpected, but also most desirable thing happened. It started raining. It started out slowly and then the tempo increased until it got heavy. Heromenes couldn't recall an other moment in his life when he had been as happy as he was right then. He tilted his head up and opened his mouth, welcoming each and every drop of water that made it inside. Soon enough, he was strong enough to try one more time to grab the flask. He wasn't tied to anything that would prevent him from moving so all he had to do was roll forward, just a tad, and catch the flask with his mouth.

It took the man several attempts, but he finally made it. With one swift move he bit the flask with his teeth -careful not to bite to hard and rip it- and he brought it towards him. Now all he had to do, was find a way to open it and drink the water, as his hands and legs were tied together quite firmly. Something that made moving difficult. But his hopes were up once again. He would make it. All he had to do was try. As the man tilted his head back again, he started thinking of his big escape plan. It would be hard but not unmanageable. Definitely not unmanageable.

**A.N: Thanks for reading! Plz review and let me know what you think! :D**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Hey everyone! Missed me? :P I just wanted to say that I'm sooo sorry for taking so long to upload... It's just that for the past week, I've been so obsessed with Batman (weird right? :P I can't stop playing Arkham City :P ) and I totally forgot that I hadn't uploaded anything for almost over a week! So I spent all day today, putting this lil chapter together! Hope u like it! Oh and please, feel free to share any ideas you might have for this. I feel like the last chapters are going a bit downhill... I can't help but think that they are not as good as my previous ones.. :P  
**

**~FallenAngelXWP: haha glad I made you laugh! lolz and also, glad you liked my chapter! :) okay then. don't forget to ask if you have any questions. I know that my story can be a little weird at times.. Even I get confused here and there :P  
~zelwicka: hi! thanks for reviewing! :) all I can say is that you are just gonna have to read this one and find out.. :P (hope you like it!)  
~Kamalackapacka: hello again! :P glad to hear that you liked the previous chapter! no problem. I'd be happy to answer any more of your questions! :P P.S.: I'll have to agree with that. writing that last part made thirsty too! haha P.P.S.: don't worry! your review didn't suck! :)  
**

**21.**

"Oh my gods! Seriously?" yelled Gabrielle, while trying to cover herself from the pouring water. "Ambrosia we need to find shelter!"

The rain had caught Ambrosia and Gabrielle off guard and now both of them were completely drenched. Ambrosia removed her wet hair away from her face and scrunched her eyes to prevent the water from getting in them.

"I'm pretty sure there are some caves not so far away from here! I'm gonna scout ahead okay?" yelled Ambrosia and quickened her pace but was stopped by the bard, who caught her by the arm.

"I'm not comfortable with you going by yourself. It's too dangerous!"

"You can't come with me! Who's gonna watch Argo?" Gabrielle didn't respond. "Look. I'll be fine! If I see that I can't do it, I'll just come back. Okay?" said ambrosia placing a hand on Gabrielle's shoulder, squeezing it slightly.

"Be careful." said the bard and smiled. "Hey! I want you back in one piece!" she yelled as the girl turned her back to her and started running. "Looks like it's just you and me now Argo... Come on. Let's find us some protection from this awful weather." said Gabrielle to Argo and pulled the reins as she walked forward, looking for a relatively dry spot or her and the horse, until Ambrosia's return.

* * *

Half a candlemark passed and Gabrielle had started to worry. The rain was still going strong -even stronger than before- and there was no sign of Ambrosia anywhere around. Gabrielle had found a large boulder that created a cave-like space and was big enough for her and Argo to go under it and stay dry.

After a while, the bard, who had crawled under the boulder and gone as far back as possible, leaving Argo enough room to sit, decided that it was high time she searched for Ambrosia. She tried crawling back out, but it was not as easy as it seemed. Argo had found a perfectly dry and comfortable spot and was not about to move away and lose it. The bard tried sweet-talking to the horse, only to be completely ignored. After a few failed attempts, Gabrielle was getting quite angry at the stubborn horse.

"Move!" she yelled and pushed Argo out of the way. The horse neighed in annoyance, but did as it was told to and moved slightly, leaving just enough room for the bard to squeeze through. "Stupid horse." she muttered under her breath as she finally managed to crawl out of the boulder. The bard peeped her head from the inside of the large boulder and looked around. The rain was too heavy for her to be able to see in the distance -even when scrunching her eyes- so she couldn't tell if anyone was around. Gabrielle was worried that Ambrosia wouldn't be able to find her and Argo if she went back underneath the boulder. So she decided to stay where she was, just to make sure that she would be seen by the girl when she returned.

A few minutes later, and just as Gabrielle was getting ready to go out and look for Ambrosia, the bard noticed someone coming from the distance. Soon enough, Ambrosia came running towards the place Gabrielle was sitting at. Luckily, she saw the bard and knelt right next to her, trying to get to a dry spot.

"There are three caves." informed the girl as she tried to dry her hair by rubbing it with her hands. "One of them is completely inaccessible. It has some rocks blocking the entrance." she continue, running her fingers though her hair. "The other two seemed okay. But we should hurry if we want to get there... They are quite far away. But you should see the size of them! They are huge!" added the girl and smiled at Gabrielle who let out a laugh.

"We could of course stay here, until it stops raining a bit." said the bard. "Then we can go to the caves. Right now, I think it's not safe to do so. Plus, it'll take us more time to go there with Argo..." she continued.

"Yeah, you're right." said Ambrosia and looked back, under the boulder. "Looks like Argo is enjoying herself." she said and nodded towards the horse. "She has found the driest place round here." she added and laughed slightly.

"Tell me about it!" replied the bard and she too turned around to look at Argo. "And she's not willing to give it up either!" she added, getting a confused look from Ambrosia. "Trust me. I know." she said and the two girls laughed.

-_**Elsewhere**_-

"Oh no!"

Xena knew it was going to rain ever since she had seen the first dark clouds gathering in the sky but she hadn't expected the rain to start so soon and be so heavy. The tracks she had been following all day were washed away in the blink of an eye and the warrior was left there soaked to the bone, wondering if she should keep going straight ahead -like she had been doing all that time- or if she should find a dry place to protect herself from the torrential downpour that was getting stronger by the minute. No doubt it would be dangerous to be unprotected at a time like that one, but the Warrior Princess had faced far, _far _more dangerous situations, out of which she had come out alive and well -most of the times.

Xena debated with herself for a while and decided that she should probably stop walking and cover herself from the heavy rain before she kept searching for Gabrielle. The warrior figured that the bard would most definitely not be traveling in that weather and she would have found herself a dry place to hide until the deluge was over. That meant that the distance between the two of them would not grow longer and Xena could pick up where she'd left off, before the rain started. The only setback was that all the tracks Gabrielle had left behind were vanished. Washed away by the raging waters. That would certainly slow Xena down, but nothing would keep her from finding Gabrielle.

_'If I remember correctly, there are some caves around here.'_ thought the warrior as she tried to protect her face with her hand. _'I should go and stay there until it's safe to continue.'_ she kept thinking as she picked her pace up. The caves were quite far away and the weather did nothing to help the warrior. The fact that she was in the woods, worried Xena. She knew she should stay as far away from trees as possible when there was a storm, but how was she supposed to do that when everything that surrounded her were trees? She knew that lightning hit mostly wooded areas and that made her wonder if Zeus was actually aiming at the trees. But surely there had to be a different explanation, other than Zeus aiming trees. Even the thought of it, made Xena smile and let out a chuckle.

The warrior kept walking and walking. "These caves are further away than I thought." she said to herself and scrunched her eyes a bit, in an attempt to see clearer. All Xena could see around her was water and dark shadowy shapes, usually rocks or fallen brunches and sometimes the occasional squirrel or two who hadn't made it back to its drey yet.

As Xena kept wondering around, her eye caught a large boulder that seemed perfect for a temporary shelter. Judging by its position, there had to be enough space under it for the warrior to hide and wait for the weather to calm. She was ready to walk towards it, when something made her stop. She had heard something. A voice. And then a very familiar laughter. Could it be-?

"Gabrielle...!" muttered the warrior as she cautiously approached the boulder. She could see a dim light coming from underneath it, like someone had managed to light a fire. 'That _had_ to be hard to do.' she thought as she stopped walking and tried to listen carefully to what the voices from under the boulder were saying. There were two voices. One of them, Xena didn't recognize. But the other one- The other one made the warrior smile widely the moment she heard it. It was Gabrielle. She was sure of it.

"I'm going to see if the rain is less heavy now, so we can move on. Okay?" said the unfamiliar voice and Xena walked in front of the boulder. She saw a girl approaching, looking back and letting out a laugh at something that Xena couldn't hear or see. As Ambrosia crawled out of the boulder and into the rain, she stood up, having no clue of the warrior's presence inches away from her. All the girl could do was a single step, before she tripped on the tall warrior, something that made her stumble back surprised and fall to the ground, letting out a scream. As if on purpose, lightning struck the moment the girl set her eyes on the warrior, making the whole situation even scarier.

"Ambrosia!" Gabrielle was heard from under the boulder. "What happened?" she asked as she crawled from underneath the large rock, not getting up. Ambrosia pointed with her eyes at the direction of the tall, dark woman and Gabrielle raised the head slowly. The bard's lips formed a huge smile as soon as she saw what it was that had scared Ambrosia so much. Her green eyes looked straight into the warrior's smiling blue ones, as she rose.

"Xena!" she exclaimed and threw herself at the warrior, hugging her like there was no tomorrow, as the warrior wrapped her hands around the blonde's shoulders in a tight embrace.

**A/N: So there you have it :) a bit of fluff in the end, just cause I felt like it :P Anyways, hope you enjoyed it! plz review and let me know! :D**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Omg you guys! I know I'm inexcusable! So sorry it took me so effing long to update! I'm afraid that my Batman obsession has yet to leave me and it's keeping me from writing as often as I'd like! Plus, I couldn't find ANY ideas for this chapter so that was a bit of a problem too... Anyways, again, I'm so sorry! :) I hope you enjoy this one! I actually think it turned out quite good! :)  
P.S.: Thanks for the alerts! :D  
~zelwicka: Glad you enjoyed the chapter! It was about time they found each other, don't you think? :P Hope you like this one! :)  
~Kamalackapacka: hi! and welcome to fanfiction (officially this time :P )! okay, first of all, _never_ be sorry for being happy! lol now that that's out of the way, I'm so happy you enjoyed the previous chapter! Let's just hope you enjoy this one too :P  
P.S.: I have no idea why I don't really like the last two (or three, can't really remember) chapters... it's probably me being paranoid! :P  
P.P.S.: I'd be happy to help you out if you need anything! Using your account is super easy! just PM me if you have any questions! :)  
~readnowrite: Hello! thanks for reviewing my story! :) now, about the romance, I'm not sure yet how far I'm gonna take it.. I don't think I'm really good at writing maintext so I'm thinking that I'm just gonna leave it to subtext.. but who knows. Maybe I'll change my mind.. :P (thank for the fave too, btw!)**

**22.**

"Oh my gods, Xena! Where have you been?" asked Gabrielle, the smile never leaving her face, while untangling herself from the warrior's embrace. "I was so worried!" she continued, giving Xena a light punch in the shoulder.

The warrior didn't speak. She just smiled at the small bard standing in front of her, placed her hand on her friend's shoulder and motioned her back underneath the boulder. Gabrielle moved back, followed by Xena and Ambrosia who still hadn't said a word. The three of them sat around the freshly lit fire, the warrior's eyes never leaving Gabrielle. Once settled, Xena took a brief look around, while she twisted her hair, the water pouring down from the dark strands. She spotted Argo who was sleeping peacefully, twitching the ears now and then and she couldn't help but smile. _'God's I'm getting soft.'_ she thought without looking away. Gabrielle raised her eyes ad followed her friend's gaze.

"She's been very brave." she commented.

"Well she is _my_ horse." said Xena, causing the bard to roll her eyes. "What happened to her leg?" she asked concerned, ignoring Gabrielle's 'Of course.', said in a slightly ironic tone.

"Oh it's nothing." said the blonde as she turned and looked at Argo. "She just sprained it. She'll be up and running in no time." she added and smiled.

"Of course she will. She's a fighter." came a voice from behind the two women. They both turned to face a pretty shy-looking Ambrosia, who was smiling slightly. Xena looked at Gabrielle in a 'who-in-Tartarus-is-that' way that made the bard smile.

"Xena, meet Ambrosia." said the blonde and nodded at the girl sitting a few feet away from them.

"Hi." said the girl and extended her hand for a handshake. She and a still confused looking warrior shook hands.

"Ambrosia?" asked Xena. "That's a very unique name." she continued.

"And guess who gave it to her!" said Gabrielle.

"Her parents?" asked the warrior sarcastically.

"Ha-ha. Very funny. Come on Xena! Doesn't she look a bit familiar to you?" Xena turned and looked at the girl, who was starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. "The dark eyes... The shape of the nose... The lips!" At that, Xena understood just where Gabrielle was going with this. But it couldn't be... Could it?

The warrior looked at the bard and raised an eyebrow. All she go as a response was a nod that confirmed what she was thinking.

"Ares...?" Xena as she turned back at Ambrosia to take a better look at her. The girl looked down, her face turning a tad red. "Seriously?" asked the warrior, finding it hard to accept. Surely Ares had to have children with mortal women, all the gods did, but Xena thought they would be fierce warriors or ruthless warlords. And yet there she was, a young girl looking nothing like what the warrior had expected.

"Yes." said Gabrielle. "Ambrosia is Ares and Marianne's daughter." she added.

"Oh so _you_ are Marianne's daughter." said the warrior and once again, she turned to face the girl.

"You- You know me?" asked the girl confused.

"I've been looking for you."

"Me? Why?"

"Someone told me that you would know where Gabrielle would be. Turns out you do. I was sorry to hear about you mother by the way. She was a good woman. She didn't deserve this..."

"You knew my mother?" Ambrosia didn't want to tell Xena that it was her and her family she had 'saved' all those years ago. If she had learned anything during her life, it was never to trust a stranger. Especially a former warlord.

"I guess you could say that..." said Xena and started narrating the story Marianne had told Gabrielle a couple of days ago. While the warrior was talking, Gabrielle stopped listening and paying attention. She still had her eyes fixed on her friend, but she was more interested in looking at her and making sure she was okay. After a careful inspection of the warrior, the young blonde noticed the gash on her leg. It was obvious that there had been no attempt in covering it in any way and it looked pretty bad, probably infected. Gabrielle reached out and touched Xena's leg, making her flinch.

"You are wounded." she said quietly and the warrior looked at her leg. She had completely forgotten about that.

"Oh that. It's nothing. I owe it to an old friend." she said as she brushed the bard's hand away.

"Yeah well. We have to take care of it... It's probably infected too..." replied Gabrielle as she crawled towards the saddlebags which were not-so-neatly propped in a nearby corner. "What happened?" she asked as she opened one of the bags and took out a small bottle filled with a green gross-looking paste -made by Xena, to be used in cases like this- and a piece of cloth. "Who did this?" she asked again and she sat next to Xena, preparing the paste.

"Our old friend Heromenes." answered the warrior simply as the bard applied the green past on the wound.

"Heromenes? That guy who was after the bounty money?"

"Yup. Turns out he's actually working for Pausanias, one of King Philip's bodyguards." At that, she felt Gabrielle stiffen a bit. "But don't worry. I took care of him." she added.

"Who? Pausanias?" asked the bard.

"Heromenes. But Pausanias is next on my list. Count on it."

"Oh I do..." whispered Gabrielle and tied the cloth around Xena's wound. "There. Good as new." she said and smiled. "I think I'm getting pretty good at this!" she added with a laugh as she crawled back to the saddlebags, putting the bottle back inside one of them.

"You surely are." half-joked Xena and stretched her leg out.

"You shouldn't move it too much. You should probably get some rest before trying to do backflips again." said Ambrosia in a quiet voice.

"She's right, Xena. You should get some rest. We all should actually. It's getting rather late and we have to be well rested if we want to travel all day tomorrow." said Gabrielle as she resumed her old position next to the warrior.

"Who's gonna keep watch then?" asked Xena.

"I'll do it." replied Gabrielle. "And I'm sure Ambrosia won't mind if I wake her up at some point to trade places with me. Right?" she added and turned at the girl sitting across from her.

"No. No, of course I don't mind!" she said and gave the two women a smile. They both smiled back and Gabrielle helped Xena move a bit further to the back, in order to get more comfortable. She then took out her bedroll and gave it to Ambrosia.

"You can use my bedroll." she said as she unfolded Xena's.

"Thanks." replied the girl, moved closer to her and the warrior and started unfolding the bedroll Gabrielle had given her.

The bard took out a scroll and her quill from one of Argo's saddlebags and moved closer to the fire. She poke it a bit with a stick and looked back at her two friends. They both looked exhausted. The blonde sighed as she turned around to face the entrance of the boulder and she started writing on her scroll.

-_**Later**_-

Gabrielle's eyes shot open as a huge crack of thunder was heard. _'It's raining even stronger than before!'_ she thought as she looked towards the entrance of the boulder. She had woken Ambrosia up a couple of candlemarks before, as she could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier. She too needed to rest after all. But the person who was sitting by the fire wasn't Ambrosia. The bard got up slowly and quietly and approached.

"Xena. What are you doing? I thought we agreed that the watch is on me and Ambrosia this time. You need to rest." whispered Gabrielle.

"Ambrosia was tired." answered Xena.

"Then why didn't you wake me up?"

"I didn't want to. You need to rest too, you know."

"Not as much as you..." muttered the bard and continued: "At least I spent a night sleeping in a bed. Gods know where you have been sleeping..."

"In something that resembled a bed back at Pausanias' camp."

"Pausanias' camp? What were you doing there?"

"I can assure you, I didn't go there voluntarily."

"You were a prisoner?"

"Well if I wasn't, they sure don't know how to accommodate a guest..." replied Xena, making Gabrielle let out a slight laugh.

"What happened Xena? How did they get you? I woke up the other day, and both you and Heromenes were gone! What happened?"

"You don't remember anything?" asked the warrior.

"Not since the moment you told me to untie Heromenes... I've been trying to remember but I really can't!... Did I do it, Xena? Did I untie him? Cause if I did, then it's all my fault!..."

"Gabrielle it's not your fault!" exclaimed the warrior and placed her arm around Gabrielle's shoulders. "You just did what I told you to do. None of us knew what would happen. We couldn't possibly know..." she continued as the bard placed her head on her shoulder. While Xena was telling her how Heromenes had put something in the water that caused Gabrielle to pass out and how he then hit the warrior over the head, rendering her unconscious, the bard kept staring straight into the fire, feeling once more her eyelids get heavier and heavier.

**A/N: Hope you like it! :) Please review! And I promise I'll try to have the next chapter up sooner this time! I just have to find a good plot idea. Once that's done, it's a matter of typing! :P**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: I know! I know I'm aweful.. You didn't give up on me, did you? Well, if you did, you shouldn't have :P I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! (again..) I've been mad busy with college -I've been trying to act like I want to study but it doesn't seem to help :P - and things are just crazy lately, I don't have time to write as much as I'd like to! And trust me. I'd like to write much much more than I actually do! Anyways, here's a pretty small chapter for you to read :) i kinda lost my track a bit.. No worries though! I'll get right in shape again! Provided that nothing comes up.. So don't take my word too seriously when I say that I'll do my best to update sooner the next time.. :P Anything can happen!...  
P.S.: You guys go and watch "La vie en rose" and "Inception" and pretty much everything Marion Cotillard is in! That woman is amazing!  
~zelwicka: I'g glad you are enjoying my story :) Feel the love while it lasts, cause you never know what's gonna happen next.. :P This is Xena we are talking about after all. For how long can she stay out of trouble? :P  
~FallenAngelXWP: hi! I'm so happy you like it so far :) And don't worry. I read your review and it was like you had read my mind with that Ambrosia thing! :P But no wories. I've got it covered :)  
~Kamalackapacka: haha sorry for the long wait :P I'm happy you like it :) So next chapter (meaning this one) wasn't up as soon as I hoped it would.. sorry... :)  
P.S.: I've been meaning to ask you this. does "Kamalackapacka" mean anything or is it just random? and btw, what happened to your account? I thought you were officially a memeber now..**

**23.**

"So?"

"So what?"

"You're not gonna tell me what happened to you? I wake up and you just- gone! Your breastplate was there, your sword... Even your Chakram for gods' sake!"

"I told you what happened."

"I mean after that! What happened after you were taken? Xena talk to me!"

The next morning had found the three women already up and about, on their way to Pella, like Gabrielle had originally planned. They were still carrying the saddlebags themselves, not wanting to tire Argo and their pace was slightly faster than usual.

All three of them were walking next to each other, Xena holding Argo's reins. She had put on her clothes and her breastplate and both her sword and Chakram were back where they were supposed to be. After a long moment of silence, the warrior turned to Ambrosia.

"Hold this." she said and handed the reins to the confused-looking girl. "Gabrielle, come here." continued the warrior and picked her pace up, so that she was out of hearing distance from Ambrosia.

"What?" asked the bard, once she reached the warrior, glancing over her shoulder at Ambrosia who was talking to Argo. The warrior caught her by the arm and pulled her a bit further. "Xena, what-?"

"Gabrielle, how well do you know Ambrosia?" asked Xena.

"Um... Not too well. I mean, I just met her four days ago but- Xena, what kind of question is that?" the bard looked confused and caught off guard.

"You just met her and yet you trust her to come with you?"

"Xena, she has no one! Her mother just died and she- she followed me. I couldn't send her back..! You don't trust her?"

"She has Ares' blood in her, Gabrielle. Think about it. Can you really trust someone who is even remotely related to him?"

"Well... You trust Aphrodite."

"No. _You_ trust Aphrodite. Just like you always do! You see someone who is nice or innocent looking, and you automatically assume that he is trustworthy. Well, that's not always the case."

"So you _don't_ trust Aphrodite?"

"Gabrielle, that's not the point. The point is," said the warrior and leaned closer to Gabrielle, to make sure Ambrosia couldn't hear them, "do you really think that you can absolutely trust this girl?"

"Xena, what is this? What's wrong? I mean- If you have reasons to believe that we should not trust her, just tell me..!"

"Look. A while after you woke Ambrosia up last night to keep watch, I thought I heard someone talking. At first I thought I was just imagining it because of the tiredness and the lack of sleep or that it was just you, talking in your sleep like you always do."

"I talk in my sleep?" said Gabrielle and stopped walking for a moment, looking somewhat shocked and embarrassed at the same time.

"Don't change the subject, Gabrielle." replied the warrior and pulled the young blonde by the arm. "Turns out," she continued as soon as they were again once away from Ambrosia's hearing range "it was neither you nor my imagination."

"It was Ambrosia?" whispered the bard.

"Yes. As soon as I got up and approached her, she started mumbling. She was saying something about how she talks to herself sometimes when she's alone."

"I do that..." muttered Gabrielle, earning a raised eyebrow look from Xena who continued talking, ignoring the bard's comment.

"The thing is, it wasn't just her voice I heard. I'm sure she was talking to someone other than herself. And I have a pretty good idea who. So I drugged her."

"Whoa!" said Gabrielle and stopped at her tracks. "You what?!" she added after taking a couple of big steps, reaching the warrior's side.

"I drugged her. Nothing too much. Just enough to make her very very sleepy for a few candlemarks." answered Xena.

"You are saying it like it's the most natural thing to do!" protested Gabrielle, but she knew that Xena had a pretty good reason for doing so. "How did you do it anyway?" asked finally the bard.

"Water."

"What? Xena! I just drank from that flask!" Gabrielle tried to keep her voice down, but found it hard to do.

"Oh relax Gabrielle. I changed the water before we left. And keep your voice down, will ya? Last thing I want, is her suspecting that I'm suspecting something!" said Xena and threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure Ambrosia wasn't trying to eavesdrop on them. She saw the girl walking relatively slowly, still holding Argo's reins, and looking around absentmindedly.

"So... Who was she talking to?" asked Gabrielle, a few moments later.

"I don't know. I told you, I have a pretty good idea, but I'm not sure."

"You think it was Ares?" whispered the bard.

"Obviously." came the reply from the warrior, whose attention was suddenly drawn to something in the distance. Gabrielle followed Xena's gaze.

"What?" she asked, when she couldn't see anything.

"There's something going on over there." said Xena and nodded at the direction of an opening in the woods.

"I can't see anything." said the bard, a bit hesitantly.

"Exactly. It's way too quiet. Didn't you notice? We haven't encountered any trouble and we're already almost halfway to Pella. You'd think at least someone would still be after us... It's like that unbearable silence before the big storm..."

"I think you miss the action, don't you? That rush of energy and excitement as you kick some serious butt..! I understand."

"Oh you do?" Gabrielle's last statement earned her an other raised eyebrow look from the warrior.

"Of course. I may not be as active during a battle as you are, but I can understand your need for fight... I do!" she insisted when she saw that the expression on Xena's face remained the same.

"Of course you do, Gabrielle." said the warrior in a slightly patronizing tone that made the blonde punch her softly on the shoulder. "Now let's just make sure we can reach Pella without having any trouble."

"When do you think we'll be there?" Ambrosia had picked her pace up and was now approaching Xena and Gabrielle, pulling Argo close behind her.

"We still have a long way to go." said the warrior and continued: "You were on a completely different path all day yesterday, you know that?"

"Seriously?" Gabrielle looked at the warrior surprised.

"Yup. You were going northwest. You were moving towards Lynkos. That's in the complete opposite direction from Pella." The bard didn't say anything. "And you say you've studied the stars and can't get lost..." mumbled Xena, earning yet an other light punch on the shoulder.

"Centaur crap..." whispered the bard and both Xena and Ambrosia let out a laugh.

-_**Elsewhere (earlier)**_-

_It hadn't taken Heromenes much time to break free from his bonds. All he needed was some extra time, and he got that when the rain started. The water he had managed to drink was just enough for him to regain some of his strength and eventually loosen the ropes he was tied with._

_His left arm was freed first. That made it much easier for him to pull his right arm free as well, while letting out a sound of relief. The man reached out for the half-full flask that was lying in frond of him, without even untying his legs. Heromenes drank the whole water in almost one gulp. _'Gods, I'm thirsty!'_ he thought as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand._

_A few moments later, after he was done untangling his legs, he took a look around. He still had no idea where he was and the fact that he had been unconscious when Xena brought him there, or that it had rained so much that even the slightest possibility of finding a trail to follow was completely gone didn't do anything at all to help his case. Of course, any sane man would try to go back to his base. Organize a troupe and attack methodically. But who said Heromenes was a sane man? All he wanted, was Xena's blood on his hands. And he wasn't going to stop until he succeeded._

_As he stood up and he took a few steps, Heromenes noticed that he was limping a bit. _

"_That bitch got me harder than I though." he mumbled as he took small steps that led him deeper into the woods. "She is so going to pay for this!" he continued mumbling, dragging his right foot, trying not to put any weight on it._

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :) Plz review :) Reviews make me happy! **_  
_


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Hey y'all! :P I'm so sorry for the extremely late update but I've been over the top busy and tired! Ugh... Who am I kidding? I'm inexcusable! Truth is, I've been waaay off my game lately -which you'll probably understand while reading this chapter- and I had to write this over four times! I'm still not happy about it, but I had to post something! :P Anyways, I really don't deserve any reviews for this one -I'd still love some- but that doesn't mean I deserve them... I've been awful at keeping this story going! :\ Anyways, now that that's off my chest, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! :D Hope you had a great time with your family, friends and loved ones! :D  
~zelwicka: So happy you are enjoying my story so far! :) Sorry I've been away for so long... Hope you like this chapter too! :) And about Ambrosia, I haven't really decided what to do with her yet... We'll see... :P  
~Kamalackapacka: (your username is so weird! :P ) Haha thanks! I'm trying to add a few ''wtf-moments'' here and there :P I don't like my stories to be, you know... predictable lol And btw, I really don't mind if your reviews are long :) I love long reviews!  
~FallenAngelXWP: Thank you! Glad you liked it :) Haha just trying to lighten the mood :P I was never too keen on extremely long, serious and/or dramatic scenes lol  
~cissie: I don't know if you'll see this but I'm just gonna reply to you anyway. :) first of all, thanks for taking the time to review! I really appreciate it! Now, The story is far from over -obviously- and I do plan on finishing it. When? No idea. But it *will* be finished! It's been taking me a while to update lately, cuz I'm busy but I'm not done with it yet.. Also, I only wrote the first 7 -I think- chapters when I was 6 and they were only drafts and something a 6-year old would write! :P Everything has been changed and -hopefully- improved and what I'm uploading now, is being written now. I don't even have notes for the chapters 8 and up!.. Thank you your compliment on my English too! And please don't give up on this story..! As I said, it's not over yet :)**

**24.**

"We'll stop here." said Xena and stopped walking.

"What? But Pella is just over that hill, isn't it?" asked Gabrielle, with a confused look on her face.

"Yup."

"We can easily make it there before sundown..."

"I know."

"Then why are we stopping?" The question came from Ambrosia, who was a few steps ahead of the two women.

"It's gonna be dark soon."

"But you just said-"

"I _know_ what I said. Listen what I'm saying now. We are stopping here." replied Xena, emphasizing the last sentence. Both Gabrielle and Ambrosia stopped on their tracks and gave Xena a look of confusion.

"Okay then." said Ambrosia. "I'll go gather some wood for the fire..." she added and walked away slowly. As soon as she disappeared into the woods, Gabrielle caught Xena by the arm and stopped her from moving. The warrior's head turned abruptly, giving the younger woman an angry look.

"What's wrong?" asked the bard calmly.

"Nothing." replied Xena, trying to yank her arm free only to feel the grip around it tightening.

"You can't fool me, Xena. Something's wrong, I can see it in your eyes. Don't shut me out, Xena." Gabrielle's tone was still calm, but this time, there was a hint of pleading in her voice.

"Gabrielle let me go." said the warrior, giving her friend her usual stare.

"No. Not until you tell me what's going on! Is it about what you told me earlier? About Ambrosia? You still think she's hiding something, don't you? If she is, it's not like we can go up to her and ask her... She won't tell us, even if she actually _isn't_ hiding anything... This is so messed up..." By then, Gabrielle's words were addressed mostly to her own self rather the woman next to her. Her grip on Xena's arm had loosened, enabling the warrior to pull it away.

The thought of Ambrosia being a team with Ares seemed so wrong to Gabrielle. Ambrosia was a young girl who had just lost her mother. She was hurt and helpless and wanted someone to talk to, someone to trust. In the bard's mind, Ambrosia was a good person. _'Xena's just being paranoid...'_ she thought as she made her way to a piece of wood that would be a perfect sitting place.

"Xena what if- Xena?" Looking around, the bard realized she was all alone once more. Argo was standing there, staring at her. "Stop looking at me." said Gabrielle and stood up. "Like you know anything! You don't know anything! You are just a horse...!" Argo didn't move her gaze. It was like she knew that Xena might actually be right. "Xena's always right..." muttered Gabrielle and sat back down. "Maybe I _should_ pay closer attention to Ambrosia..." As if on cue, Ambrosia appeared, carrying some branches for the fire.

"Where's Xena?" she asked.

"I have no idea." answered the bard truthfully.

"That's all I could find..." said the girl and placed the branches in front of Gabrielle. "Everything else was wet. Which reminds me. There's a river right behind those trees. We could use a good clean up. I know I could..." Ambrosia kept talking as she sat down next to Gabrielle and gave her a small smile. The bard smiled back and stood up, not sure what to do next.

"So um... I'm just gonna- you know, um... wash up. I'll be right there if you need me anything..." said Ambrosia nervously, pointing at the direction of the river as she stood up and left from where she had come from just minutes ago. Gabrielle stayed there for a while longer, debating with herself on whether she should go to the river as well -gods knew just how much she needed to clean herself up after the downpour and the endless walking through the woods- or wait for Xena, who had once again walked away without saying anything. The bard sighed and plopped herself on the wooden log she was sitting on before. As much as she hated to admit it, the warrior's words had had an impact on her. She sighed again and buried her face in her hands, in an attempt to make some sense out of everything.

"Gabrielle?" The bard's head rose and looked at the warrior who had just arrived.

"Where were you?" she asked simply yet with a demanding tone in her voice.

"Down by the river." said Xena and pointed at the opposite direction Ambrosia had just gone to. Gabrielle looked at her friend from head to toe and realized that water was dripping off her skin and hair.

"The river is that way..." said the bard nonetheless.

"No. It's that way. I just came from there. I think I'd know were it is..." replied Xena a tad confused. "Where's the girl?" she asked after taking a look around.

"Um... The river...?"

"Gabrielle, I was just there and I was alone. Where is she?"

"The- other river...?" Gabrielle's mind was racing. Why would Ambrosia lie to her like that?

"There _is _no other river. Gabrielle you know this place. We've been here before. There's only one river and it's that way!" said the warrior pointing at the opening on her left.

_'Of course there's only one river.'_ thought the bard. _'How could I be so stupid?' _Thinking of all the times her and Xena had been in that river, she cursed herself for her lack of common sense.

"Which way did she go?" asked Xena. "Ugh. I told you she couldn't be trusted!" she added and took off as soon as Gabrielle nodded to the direction Ambrosia had gone to.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :) Sorry for the long A/N in the beginning!  
****On other news, I'd just like to say that NCIS rules! And remember my Batman obsession? It's still going strong! :P It's probably the longest period of time I've had an obsession ever since Xena! hahah**


End file.
